possibility studies

There is an audacity in focusing on the possible in an age of major personal and societal impossibilities.

Magical Realism is, more than anything else, an attitude toward reality…. In Magical Realism the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, to discover what is mysterious in things, in life, in human acts. The principle thing is not the creation of imaginary beings or worlds but the discovery of the mysterious relationship between man and

Children in our studies who believe in possibility rarely cite libertarian ideas of “free will” (I am the ultimate authority over my actions and decisions). Instead, they sound like they are imagining hypothetical (and novel) solutions to social and psychological problems. This increasing willingness to transcend psychological, social, and moral

History can get stuck and can go into reverse. Powerful interests will do whatever they can to resist, divert, confuse or disrupt trends that they find threatening. Imagination is one of the weapons with which to confront them—imagination that is compelling, rigorous and thought through.

Pedagogies of the possible are an educational necessity . Traditional forms of education, focused on standardised goals, uniformity in teaching, and sameness of outcomes, are increasingly recognised as not suitable for the challenges (and impossibilities) of today. Living within uncertain, complex and difficult environments, defined by a fast pace

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.

All four dimensions of the imaginary need to evolve in harmony for imaginative ideas to last; they gather around them meanings and associations and become part of people’s identity. Visions that remain only visions do not survive, but equally, practical ideas that don’t have any supporting superstructure of ideas tend not to thrive because they

we need a sustained ethical reflection on the scope, nature, and limits of our engagement with the possible and the consequences this engagement has for ourselves, for others, for society, and for the planet. Being in the position to envision a course of action and its alternatives and to evaluate which possibilities should be acted upon and which

That we are more at home among familiar ideas is very apparent, though these ideas are so normalised that we often fail to see them as products of human imagination at all. Much of daily life depends on our ability to believe in things that are, essentially, fictions.