“A platform for the profound reimagining of society”: New one-of-a-kind manifesto from ‘Ministry of Imagination’ highlights policies the world will need in 2030
‘From What If To What Next’ podcast has invited guests to time travel to 2030 to highlight utopian policies across arts, culture, business, health, housing and more
As the world gears up to go to the polls at a time that will critically shape its future, the fortnightly ‘From What If to What Next’ podcast has invited its guests to time travel into 2030 to choose “bold, audacious, ambitious and beautiful policies” to transform humankind. Today, these policies have been revealed for the first time in The Ministry of Imagination Manifesto: ‘an imagination-based manifesto for times that need one.’
Running across 100 episodes between May 2020 and March 2024, each installation of the ‘From What If to What Next’ podcast invited two guests – including ecologists, economists, artists, prison abolitionists, trauma therapists, printmakers, politicians, disability activists, rewilding practitioners and many more – to answer a different ‘What If’ question across a wide range of topics, deep diving into what the world might be like had that change already been made.
Bonus Ministry of Imagination episodes saw podcast guests inaugurated as Ministers at the Ministry of Imagination. Each freshly-inaugurated Minister was invited to choose three policies that could be immediately implemented, in order to rapidly accelerate the collective move in the direction of the question that the podcast had covered.
With all guests setting to the task with great relish, the result was over 600 deeply thoughtful, considered, audacious policies, now brought together for the first time.
Covering free art materials for all (Mahfam Malek), to a Universal Basic Income (Andrew Skeoch) and every company having to list all their failures as well as their successes in their annual reports (Carlos Zimbrón), the Manifesto also looks at a world without prisons (Zena Sharman), free talking therapies for men (Ben Hurst), a Carbon Tax (Johannes Stripple), a complete eradication of plastic (Dr Scilla Elworthy) and a society where everyone has food, shelter and love (Mariame Kaba). The full Manifesto can be found at: https://www.robhopkins.net/2024/04/15/ministry-of-imagination-manifesto-released-as-the-world-goes-to-the-polls/
As Rob Hopkins, curator of the Ministry of Imagination Manifesto, says:
“This manifesto is a platform for the profound reimagining of society. These are policies that have emerged through the creation of a space where the imagination is cherished and nurtured. At a time when the policies being put forward by political parties seem to be becoming increasingly bereft of imagination and ambition – focused on small incremental steps rather than the bold steps our situation demands – perhaps a Ministry of Imagination Manifesto might be what the world needs?
“In most cases, voters are being asked to choose between deeply unimaginative manifestos, all firmly wedded to a business-as-usual economic model that is clearly failing around the world. The rise of the far-right is also profoundly troubling, underpinned as it is by dystopian visions of the future and the need for ‘strong’ leaders to protect us from those futures.
“But what would a manifesto look like that was based on a positive vision of the future, one that is appropriately ambitious to the scale of the challenges the world is facing while at the same time bold, imaginative and audacious? I would argue that the failure of progressive parties and movements to set out bold visions of the future has left the space for the far right to fill, and that getting better at bringing positive futures alive in people’s imaginations is vital.
“This year, perhaps now more than ever, we need a taste of what policy making underpinned by the radical imagination looks like. If you recognise how extraordinary and powerful this collection of possibility-infused policies is – from this eclectic mix of people from across the world – please share it far and wide. Send it to any policy-makers or politicians you know. Post it anywhere you can. Don’t let the possible be constrained by the imaginative poverty of our current manifesto writers.”
The Ministry of Imagination Manifesto has been made possible by the imaginations of each and every Minister of Imagination, as well as supporters Boomtown Festival, Wake the Tiger, Team Love, Transition Network, Moral Imaginations and Bath Spa University.
