possibility studies
The problem is the gulf between this restless, fascinating technological imagination and the much more limited imagination that exists in relation to so much else. It’s not that alternative futures are absent.21 It’s just that the scientific side of imagination is far more prominent, far better funded and inevitably far less sensitive to the
... See moreGeoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
the scientific and technological imagination means very little absent an active social and human imagination [e.g., when tech gets it wrong - apple, google ads]
Old attitudes and ideas simply aren’t adequate to help us navigate what lies ahead. And pervasive gloom about the future risks being self-fulfilling.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
our engagement with possibility is, at all times, constrained (e.g., by what is, by previous imaginations of what could be, by their enactment). This doesn’t mean that we cannot envision radical possibilities but that constraints – themselves never fully fixed in time and space – are enablers of our relationship with what is possible, both in its
... See moreVlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
They also follow a narrative structure in which choices and opportunities are rendered intelligible by placing them within wider stories of who we are and who we are becoming.
Vlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
Philosophically, modernity is often referred to as “The Age of Man.” In ascension since the Renaissance, it crystallized toward the end of the 18th century into a configuration of knowledge that French philosopher Michel Foucault characterized as an episteme in which the figure of Man as the foundation of all possible knowledge. Jamaican
... See moreArturo Escobar • Welcome to Possibility Studies
What changes the world in the end is the generative ideas, not the detailed blueprints. But the blueprints are useful tools for thinking with—they help to clarify ideas and can show unexpected consequences. Developing them is part of being positively engaged with the world. It’s easy to be against things and easy to be a critic; much harder to
... See moreGeoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
Germans talk about the phenomenon of das Verschwinden der Zukunft, the disappearance of the future, and a widening gulf between what people hope for and what they think is likely to happen.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
This imbalance between well-funded technological imagination and thin social imagination, amplified by materiality biases, explains many of the pathologies of recent years.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
Minds and societies defined by diversity and dialogue are, consequently, open to new possibilities in ways that monological, fixated, and totalitarian worlds and mindsets are not.