Five reasons why social imagination is important

In season two episode five of our Reimagining Government podcast, co-hosts Adrian Brown and Keira Lowther discuss social imagination. They highlight:

• What social imagination is

• The current relationship between public servants and imagination

• How imagination helps us look at how we structure our government

• How we can use imagination to solve issues in modern society

• How imagination should take a flagship role when planning in government

The episode features Hannah McDowall (Co-Director at Canopy - A Social Imagination Project) and Cassie Robinson (Associate Director of Emerging Futures at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) about their experiences with social imagination.

In this article, we’ll summarise five key insights from the episode that highlight why social imagination is important. Listen to the full episode below or click here.

Five reasons why social imagination is important

Here’s five reasons social imagination is important - covered in season two episode five of Reimagining Government.

It helps us approach complex issues in multiple ways

Early in the episode, the hosts speak about the connection between complexity and imagination. Adrian said:

“As I understand it, there's a connection between complexity and imagination.

Complexity means there aren't straightforward answers, and one way of framing a situation need not be the only way. There are many ways, and we're encouraged to think like this.

Imagination is a way of navigating complexity, or at least, wrestling with the complexity we find in the real world.”

Keira added:

“I think once you've got your head around complexity and you're prepared to step into the ambiguity of it (where you can't predict things and outcomes are emergent), you're in a better place to see different perspectives, lenses, and ways of looking at a problem. And that lets you see past the boundaries of your thinking and embrace what else might be possible.”

It invites people to dream

Asking people to use their imaginations is essentially asking them to dream. As Cassie highlighted, we should recognise the importance of this:

“We shouldn't underestimate the power of just inviting people to dream. People aren't used to being asked what they dream of. Or what they long for. They haven’t been asked where they want the five new bus stops in their city to be or if they think a policy should be changed. The framing and invitation of that alone is deeply moving for some people because they've never had the opportunity or investment in them to even consider that.”

It helps us build a society that works for the collective rather than the individual

Social imagination also helps us to develop communities that work for the collective rather than a few select people. Hannah said:

“If we want to see solutions, we need to meet the challenges we're facing in society. We need to do things differently. And social imagination is one option we haven't lent into enough because most of the people who’re making the decisions come from societies or cultures dominated by White European thinking.”

Adrian added:

“I think this is a really important point. Change doesn't start by saying, “let's imagine a different experience”. It starts by saying, “let's imagine a different set of values, different framing, and something much more foundational, which we can then build out.”

It reminds us why dreaming together is important

The episode also discusses the connection between social imagination and accountability. Cassie said:

“The collective aspect of dreaming is powerful because what does it mean for other people to witness you speaking your dreams? And what does it mean for people to hear together? It reminds us that we do have some sense of shared dream. It might not be one dream (because I think it's always plural), but that can create some kind of accountability as well.”

Keira continued:

“I think it's a really interesting point to make that when we dream together, there's accountability, and we can support each other.

We know that change in societies happens in communities. It’s more successful in communities. So we need each other.

It feels important to imagine how things might be different together.”

It reaffirms how important government is

With so much social imagination needed, we also spoke to Cassie about the role she thinks the government will play in the future. She said:

“There's a lot of discontent with governments. There's a lot of people that don't feel like governments are full of imagination or doing the work we need them to do. But I’d say we do need governments in our future because they’re the people who can spread, scale, and resource at the level we need. But how are they ensuring that in investing in the right processes, they’re asking the right questions? Or, that they're taking the right questions into that kind of deliberative democracy work? That's where I think the work around social imagination really sits.”

The full conversation about social imagination is available now on all major podcast listening platforms. To listen, use the player below or click here.