By Daniel Stanley, STIR to Action
In the case of ‘storytelling’, the central issue is an assumption that what is needed to solve our social problems and change the public’s mind is a ‘method’ – that we have all the materials that we need, and all that’s needed to present alternative ideas is a better way of conveying them.
By Rut Elliot Blomqvist, Uneven Earth
A critical approach to utopian imaginaries is essential for any rethinking of political futures; without it, we risk being trapped in the same old stories even as we see ourselves as thinking outside the old story box.
By Sarah Freeman-Woolpert, Waging Nonviolence
Since its founding 50 years ago — when it became both the first Smithsonian museum located off the National Mall and the first federally-funded community museum in the country — the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has served as an interactive space, engaging local residents in the power of neighborhood storytelling.
By Andrew Curry, thenextwave
Poor old Malthus. He has had a bad reputation ever since he predicted, towards the end of the 18th century, that over-population would lead to famine and then to social collapse.
By Brian Davey, Feasta
Although we may not think that we do, we all live with faiths – ideas that we take for granted that appear so obvious that we do not feel a need to re-examine them – ideas that we do not usually want to re-examine.
By Randy Olson, Ensia
In today’s world of nonstop information, the risk of research remaining obscure is greater than ever. One of the ironies of the computer era is that each innovation for better communication has simply led to more buzz and more difficulty being heard.
By Dave Pollard, How to save the world
You probably haven’t heard of the term acedia used, and it has several definitions, so I’ll start by defining it. It is a disillusioned detachment, disengagement or dissociation that stems from an incapacity to cope with the realities of the moment.
By Guy Dauncey, The Practical Utopian
Our history would be simple if we could classify it neatly into dominating alpha-males versus cooperative hunter-gatherers, but the experience of agency gives us not one but two fundamental impulses. As well as the desire not to be dominated it gives us the impulse to explore our individuality
By Rob Hopkins, Rob Hopkins blog
If we take this idea seriously, that this is an interpenetrated, interrelated, interconnected cosmos, then there’s going to be interconnections with creativity.
By Rob Hopkins, Rob Hopkins blog
Orwell nailed it in 1984, that who controls the present controls the past, and who controls the past controls the future.