Description

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.

Reviews

‘Fizzes with ideas … very exciting’ Adrian Wooldridge, Washington Post

‘Important…if we struggle even to imagine a better future, we will be unable to create it.’ Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, Best New Political Books

‘A manifesto for creativity, and for thinking big’ Rachel Cunliffe, New Statesman;

 ‘This book is the tonic the world needs…. Read it!’ — Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America;

 ‘We desperately need to renew our sense of what is possible and imagine the future in ways that are simultaneously creative, open and practical. This wonderful, eclectic and deeply interesting book is crammed with ideas of just how we might do so. If you care about where we’re headed, you must read this.’ — Professor Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School, author of ‘Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire’;

‘A dizzying cornucopia of cases for imagination mattering more than rote learning and political orthodoxy….this is an inspiring call for a more imaginative tomorrow.’ — Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford, author of Slowdown and Peak Inequality;

 ‘Geoff Mulgan reminds us that we can imagine and create change, not just fix what is broken. His book offers hope and the power of possibility.’ — Sonal Shah, former Director of Social Innovation, Obama Administration, and Executive Director of the Beeck Center, Georgetown University;

 ‘There is wisdom & insight in this book on how governing can have broader and more ambitious horizons’ Pascal Donohue, Ireland’s Finance Minister and chair of Eurogroup, in the Irish Times