Why do alternative futures need imagination?

"We can't build what we can't imagine" (Walidah Imarisha): a future has to be pictured before anyone can work towards it. Imagining is also a political act, because it draws attention to what matters and what could change.

Two voices make the argument:

• Walidah Imarisha, an American writer and educator who co-edited Octavia's Brood, a collection of science fiction from social-justice movements: building a different world starts with being able to imagine it.
• Kathryn Yusoff, a British geographer: imagining is a special way of seeing, feeling, thinking and dreaming. It helps us change the world and makes us notice what is politically important.

This is the reason futures work uses stories, pictures and scenarios rather than only numbers. A trend line can tell you what is probable; only imagination can show what is desirable and different from today, which is the step status quo bias and the imaginary crisis block.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia: Walidah Imarisha — her work and Octavia's Brood, "visionary fiction" for social change.
• Wikipedia: Speculative design — design that imagines alternative futures to provoke debate.