Imagining Tomorrow with Rob Hopkins: Cultivating Community and Shaping the Future
Nov 30, 2023
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Rob Hopkins, co-founder of Transition Network and author, discusses the power of community imagination, creating spaces for collective dreaming, and the journey towards a healthier relationship with the internet. They explore successful community initiatives, imagination activism, and 'embodied futuring'. The conversation also touches on the importance of facilitators, tangible creative expression, and creating a vibrant learning environment.
Collective imagination is essential for shaping the future, and spaces should be created to facilitate this collective endeavor.
Imagination infrastructure, including well-facilitated gatherings and physical spaces, is crucial for nurturing imagination and inspiring participation in designing the future.
Deep dives
The Power of Community Imagination
Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Network, discusses the importance of community imagination in shaping a sustainable future. He explains how his team built a fully functioning time machine to explore different possible futures, focusing on the impact of cutting carbon emissions. The future they envision includes reduced car usage, cleaner air, increased community ownership, and shifting societal approaches to policing and incarceration. Hopkins emphasizes the significance of people feeling part of a historic and impactful movement, where their input matters and makes a difference.
Collective Imagination and Imagining Spaces
Hopkins emphasizes that imagination is at its best when it becomes a collective endeavor. He advocates for the creation of spaces that foster collective imagination and facilitate thinking about the future in different ways. He highlights the Transition movement's approach of creating 'what if' spaces and well-facilitated gatherings where people can collectively imagine and design the future they want. Hopkins also mentions other initiatives such as imagination activism training and training for the not yet, which encourage asking big 'what if' questions and inspire imagination activism within organizations.
Building Imagination Infrastructure
Hopkins discusses the need to develop imagination infrastructure within organizations and communities. He emphasizes the importance of building an ecosystem that supports imagination activism. Hopkins mentions the relevance of facilitators who can create spaces where people can immerse themselves in imaginative thinking. He also highlights the value of creating physical spaces and experiences, such as encounters shops and transition town anywhere initiatives, to engage people in reimagining their surroundings, facilitating participation, and allowing ideas to flourish.
Imagination and the Internet
Hopkins acknowledges the challenges posed by the internet and digital technologies when it comes to fostering imagination. He raises concerns about the addictive nature of digital interactions, declining attention spans, and the impact on democracy. While he admits his own limited understanding of technology, he advocates for creating spaces for real human connection and analog experiences. Hopkins suggests that fostering imagination in online networks and communities requires intentional efforts to bring people together, employ playful methods, and create participatory and imaginative platforms.
In this episode of the Cohere podcast, co-hosts Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas interview Rob Hopkins, Ph.D., co-founder of Transition Network and author, on the power of community imagination in shaping our future. Dubbed a "guest from the future," Rob shares his insights on creating spaces for collective dreaming and the journey towards a healthier relationship with the internet. They discuss the ingredients for successful community initiatives, the role of imagination activists, and overcoming barriers to our creative potential. With storytelling as a pivotal theme, Rob also touches on the concept of 'embodied futuring.' The conversation concludes with a teaser into the intriguing research for his upcoming book.
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