Alongside the very visible crises of climate, wars, pandemics and trade struggles, we also face a less visible emergency: a crisis of imagination. We can easily picture ecological disaster or futures dominated by technology. But we struggle to imagine a world in which people thrive and where we improve our democracy, welfare, neighbourhoods or education. Many are resigned to fatalism—yet they desperately want transformational social change.

This book argues that, although the threats are real, we can use creative imagination to achieve a better future. It shows how in the past people mobilised imagination, whether through activism or fictions, exemplary projects or generative ideas. And it shares methods that can be used today to design plausible options for everything from care to money.

Too much of our politics is trapped in an eternal present - but in an era of 100 year lives we need to learn how to think more boldly and how to connect today’s actions to future possibilities. Drawing on social sciences, the arts, philosophy and history, Mulgan shows how we can recharge our collective imagination.

Author: Geoff Mulgan

Publisher: Hurst and Co.

ISBN: 978-1787386914