The case for poets as “the unacknowledged legislators of the world” was made by the English poet Percy Shelley. In A Defence of Poetry, written in 1821, he wrote that poets create “the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present”.
The creation of these mirrors by the crafting of inspiring visions of the future is considered by Geoff Mulgan in Another World Is Possible. This book considers the role of imagination in movements for economic and social change.
The author is a leading analyst of how deepening interdependence has affected governments, businesses and individuals. One of his earliest books, Connexity (1998), argued for a positive vision of shared responsibility as our linkages with each other deepen.
The series of books that followed demonstrate that Mulgan has a sophisticated appreciation of the forces that create modern economic and social conditions. But, more than this, he has considered how this change can be managed and channelled by society.
Another World examines how the options for policymakers can be broadened. It does not quite elevate poets to the role of legislators, but contends that imagination is central to creating societal moments of evolution and revolution.
Acts of imagination consist of two distinct phases. The first phase is to reject present conditions as a natural and unalterable state of affairs. The second step is to create a credible alternative by “moving between an awareness of limits and a search for transcendence of those same limits”.
The role of imagination in causing change is examined. A practical tone may reflect the experience of the author as a senior policy adviser to Tony Blair. Poets play a minor role. Examples instead include the design of new institutions, the development of political manifestos and how religion can be a catalyst for inspiring social change.
These different examples have a common theme: “that the social function of imagination is in some respects quite simple: it widens the range of options open to us ... Imagination creates a larger possibility space from which to choose.”
This possibility space or vision for the future need not be fully developed. The future is unknown, the conditions of tomorrow are always different from the present. Visions of change can therefore benefit from incompleteness, they can be fleshed out through action.
Mulgan prefers explorers over prophets. Explorers who, by trial and error, map out a different vision for the future. Prophets, by contrast, claim that their unique insight and vision allows them to create alternative worlds.
Concepts such as how ‘automated optimisation of energy flows could be matched with conscious human reflections on other, unautomated dimensions of a system’s design and behaviour’ left this reader baffled
Another World examines how we can re-energise our collective imagination. It suggests tools for inspired engineers. This should be a crucial section of this book as it seeks to explain how we can reignite our social and political imagination.
Proposals include taking an idea from one area of research and applying it elsewhere, the use of forecasts to develop alternative visions for the future and projects that can stimulate creative thought.
However, this menu feels incomplete. Insufficient focus is placed on the role of education in heightening the creative capabilities of citizens. The study of humanities and the role such studies can play at the frontier of new technologies is also underappreciated. The “unacknowledged legislators” should receive more attention.
The author suggests policy areas in which refreshed imagination can enhance progress. Areas include the use of time not at work (surplus time), the development of new rights and defending the concept of truth in an era of disinformation.
The means of making this progress is then analysed, beginning with the role of government. The author admits that, “governments often look like the sworn enemies of imagination”. However, he contrasts this perception with the role that governments have played in responding to the pandemic or improving living standards.
The potential reimagination of the state is frustratingly vague. The proposal that “imaginaries of the future state have at their heart a transformed view of government intelligence, seeing the state as a kind of brain that shares intelligence with society” is inadequately explained. How would this actually happen?
Governments have demonstrated an ability to make use of Big Data, it is not clear what further use is suggested.
Similar difficulties exist with suggestions for a wiser society. Concepts such as how “automated optimisation of energy flows could be matched with conscious human reflections on other, unautomated dimensions of a system’s design and behaviour” left this reader baffled.
The New York politician Mario Cuomo noted how politicians campaign in poetry, but govern in prose. There is wisdom and insight in this book on how governing can have broader and more ambitious horizons. The concept of exploratory social sciences is intriguing.
However, a lack of precision reduces too much of this advice to a series of aphorisms. A lot is asked of the reader.
Paschal Donohoe is the Minister for Finance and president of the Eurogroup
