Collective Imagination Practice in Europe

Arising Quo made £50k available to support 18 collective imagination practitioners in Europe: here are some of the patterns we discovered.

Zahra Davidson
Collective Imagination Practice
13 min readJan 9, 2025

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Introduction

JRF’s Emerging Futures team initiated the Collective Imagination Practice Community (CIPC) towards the end of 2022, bringing in Huddlecraft and Canopy as community stewards. The aim was to grow and deepen collective imagination practice in the UK and beyond, as part of their recognition of a growing demand for collective imagination work, and a growing desire amongst practitioners to learn from each other and demonstrate the value and visibility of this work to the world. We have been working towards these aims through an open programme of community and learning activities, a series of collective imagination Huddles that we host, and through a Practice Fund which distributes microfunding (up to £3k) to collective imagination practitioners in the community.

Over 2023–2024 JRF made ∼£150k available through the Practice Fund, and towards the end of 2023 Arising Quo contributed an additional £50k, for distribution to practitioners in Europe specifically (not including the UK). This was a boost that also allowed us to support 18 practitioner projects across Europe. Arising Quo are interested in encouraging more funders to move resources into the ‘soil work’ of collective imagination practice in Europe, and they aren’t aware of any other funders in Europe investing in this work.

In Europe, the 18 practitioners we supported were in the following locations:

Across the whole Practice Fund we’ve now supported 71 projects in total, out of 309 funding requests. We feel that this demonstrates the high demand — across all locations including Europe — which is also growing each time we open up for new requests.

We use a spectrum to ensure we fund a wide variety of collective imagination practice, because it’s such a broad area. Collective imagination is equally able to make deep changes within individuals — and make material changes in the world. Supporting a spread of practitioner work across this spectrum helps us to ensure we aren’t preferencing only the most visible forms of impact.

We used this spectrum to map the 18 projects we supported in Europe — and then analysed these to look for additional patterns. I’ve captured some of these patterns below, along with some examples of the projects which demonstrate each pattern.

The patterns

There are 5 patterns we’ve spotted. Here’s a summary, and below you’ll find further detail and examples:

  1. Nature as THE key stakeholder, collaborator and beneficiary!
  2. Collective imagination is a multidisciplinary fusion of practices, methods and approaches (and workshops are the dominant container)
  3. Tech doesn’t feature as much as you might think — could this be an oversight?
  4. Bringing together diverse stakeholders as a systemic strategy for impact
  5. Collective imagination as a way to hold the tension between operating within existing systems and driving alternative futures

1/ Nature as THE key stakeholder, collaborator and beneficiary!

At least half of all requests funded in Europe centred nature, in a variety of ways, from encouraging nature connection, to including more-than-human entities in collective imagination, to climate action and community-driven sustainability. This was also a strong pattern across the rest of the Practice Fund, but even more amplified amongst European practitioners. Perhaps this reflects the growing commitment to restoration and regeneration in Europe — but it is certainly hopeful and inspiring.

In some projects nature is a collaborator or muse, inspiring people’s imaginations. In others nature is the beneficiary, with many practitioners aiming to create a positive impact on local ecosystems. Sometimes collective imagination is used as a way to process the grief and anxiety people feel in relation to ecosystemic decline. We know that some practitioners refer to their practice in this space as ‘ecological imagination’. We have made some efforts so far in the CIPC to connect these practitioners, but have no doubt there is more potential in bringing them together, in Europe and beyond.

Christopher Harris, Berlin / Gibraltar

Chris’ project centers Orcas to engage in the participatory research of bioregional needs around the Strait of Gibraltar. The endangered sub-species of killer whale travelling through are involved in a popular human-wildlife conflict. The Orcas have learned to attack sailing ships and nobody knows for sure why. Chris is using this starting point of ecological speculation to host workshops that engage multi-cultural stakeholders situated in marine and maritime interaction. By working with the collective desire for cooperative water governance, through a series of online and in-person gatherings integrating science, policy, and culture, Chris is building a coastal future ‘imaginary’. He will publish the synthesised dialogue and systemic designs to seed future collectivity and activism around water policy in the Gibraltar strait, and is aiming to make small steps in a ‘just transition’ towards exciting visions of human-cetacean, coastal cooperation that could reduce our chances of mutual extinction.

Frederike Doffin, Berlin

Frederike designed and facilitated workshops for ‘Embodied Nature Connection and Transitional Momentum’. She wanted to engage with practices that foster the imagination of possible futures characterised by relationships of mutual care between humans and more-than-humans. Frederike used practices of ‘Earth Care’ in combination with bodywork to create a collective imagination process to dream up possible future scenarios. These workshops invited different modalities of nature-connection in combination with somatic exercises in order to engage with visions, and imaginative body-based thinking to develop environmental care and community care. Frederike drew on her recent Master thesis ‘Transitional Momentum for Ecological Grief’. The project created a communal space for metabolising emotions evoked by the profound environmental changes we experience at an individual and collective level.

Frederike’s Embodied Nature Connection workshop

2/ Collective imagination is a multidisciplinary fusion of practices, methods and approaches (and workshops are the dominant container)

Many practitioners have used their funding — at least in part — to experiment with novel combinations or fusions of different methods, fueling the development of collective imagination practice. In the examples below you’ll see a range of references to methods which hail from different disciplines, which you wouldn’t necessarily categorise as collective imagination. The practitioners are combining these approaches in new ways to enable collective imaginings to take place. Most often this fusion cooking is taking place within workshop formats, where practitioners can quickly test their approach and get feedback, whilst ensuring that the collective is kept at the heart of the new and emerging approaches. Those who join the workshops leave with learning outcomes of their own and new ideas and tools to apply in their own context — helping to further spread collective imagination practice to new audiences.

Bethany Copsey, RE-PEAT, Netherlands

Peatland Justice is a campaign launched by RE-PEAT to advocate for a just transition away from peat extraction for use in the horticultural sector. They are creating a deep map as part of this campaign to show the entire supply chain of peat products, including current and past trade routes (both raw peat as well as the products that use peat), present and former peat sites, and accounts of possible future scenarios. RE-PEAT held four workshops across Europe as part of the map creation. The workshops brought people together to experiment with different forms of mapping, exploring how maps can be language-based, time-based, creature-based, and planetary-based. Mapping itself is not inherently a collective imagination approach, but provided methods by which the workshop participants would combine their imaginations to create a shared vision. Mapping was not the only method used; visioning and future dreaming were key approaches used in all of the workshops, and creative practitioners and artists were invited to showcase each of the methods and topics.

One of RE-PEAT’s Peatland Justice workshops

Ágnes Fernengel, The School of Public Life, Budapest, Hungary

The School of Public Life, a Hungarian community-based research and education centre, will implement two projects with their funding. First, in collaboration with a locally embedded community house, they will run an accessible multidisciplinary event series aimed at engaging a new precariat community. By combining artistic and gamified methods with principles of critical pedagogy, they will seek to raise participants’ social imagination and critical consciousness, and encourage them to critically reflect on their social positions, explore the potential for social change, and recognise their agency in driving that change. Second, the School will develop a training course on Participatory Action Research (PAR), a transformative methodology where layman researchers gain a deeper understanding of their own oppression while also being empowered through the experience of competence and community strength. The course will incorporate non-verbal and artistic methods, further deconstructing research approaches, and enhancing the liberating effect on PAR’s participants. These projects aim to foster critical consciousness, social agency, and community empowerment through innovative, participatory, and artistic approaches.

3/ Tech doesn’t feature as much as you might think — could this be an oversight?

The two examples below are the only examples of projects we funded in Europe which explore technology as part of a collective imagination approach. Given the enormous potential of tech to fuel collective intelligence and collective action, and the globally surging discussions about the imaginative potential of generative AI, it is perhaps surprising that this isn’t a stronger theme (particularly within projects that are intentionally fusing a variety of methods). Collective imagination practice might also hold a lot of value for ongoing debates about the ethics of emerging tech, by supporting us to vision better governance of these technologies. This could be a fruitful gap to fill if we were able to distribute more funds to support European collective imagination practitioners in 2025 and beyond.

There could be many reasons for this pattern; the networks we were able to reach; the invitations we made; the interests of those who identify with collective imagination practice. Perhaps, when there is such a strong emphasis on nature and the more-than-human world, it feels hard — or inauthentic — to bring tech into the process too? Perhaps it is a rebellion against the unstoppable changes that tech imposes upon us? Going forward, we could put forward these questions, and invite projects from practitioners that either fill this gap — or reject it!

Francisco Ramazzini Estivallet, Barcelona, Spain

‘A Camera of Possible Futures’ is an initiative which blends generative AI and speculative design, aiming to democratise its collective imagination process by making the methodology accessible and open-source. Initially developed for an event in Brazil, the project involves gathering a group’s visions of the future, generating these visions using AI, and producing instant co-created images. This process fosters deep emotional connections and collective reflection as individuals see their imagined futures materialise. With the funding, the team will refine the project’s materials and documentation, ensuring others can easily replicate the method. The grant will support the design of visual aids, a series of international meetups, and documentation of these sessions. The final output will include a detailed blog post and a comprehensive guide, enabling widespread use of this powerful tool for collective imagination.

Participants of the Decentralised Creativity Huddle, mixed locations

The participants of the Decentralised Creativity Huddle, based globally including European locations, requested funding to create the Decentralised Creativity zine: a collective exploration of how web3 and new technologies can influence the ways we activate collective imagination and create together. They explored a range of learning questions including: How might creative organisations operate in a world where most talent is shared vs. ‘owned’? Can a loom be a computer for local weaving communities and the woven cloth a token in itself? How can we make writing a force for imagining and realising better futures? As a group, they explored how new technology and ways of connecting are empowering the practice of collective imagination. The zine shows how collective imagination is blossoming in innovative ways in areas such as regenerative design, local weaving communities and collaborative writing, and aims to inspire imagination and action in others.

The finished Decentralised Creativity zine

4/ Bringing together diverse stakeholders as a systemic strategy for impact

In many projects the specific people who make-up the ‘collective’ is very carefully considered, combining multiple stakeholders in a way that reflects different parts of the system they seek to intervene within. By doing this, the work engages the key people who can be part of creating and sustaining the change or impact that is generated. This strategy is not new, it comes from system change and collective action, and it is perfectly partnered with collective imagination approaches, which are so often stronger when the diversity of voices participating is greater. By strategically engaging a relevant set of organisations, institutions, communities and people, sometimes across multiple sectors, locations or domains, collective imagination practitioners can bake impact and longevity into their work, laying the foundations with those who have the power to enact what is imagined.

Alan Raposo and an alliance of 10 civil organisations, El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain

‘An event to change a city’. The alliance is a group of >10 civil organisations fighting back against the vision and narrative that their local government has been establishing in their city. The council does not believe in climate change, denies that violence against women and girls is happening, reinforces racist narratives and has destroyed local democracy. Together the alliance is working on a new strategy that will change the way their neighbours imagine the city and empower a new alternative vision for all. They plan to organise 3 events that will feed each other — a march against touristification, a main street event for an alternative city and an open citizen assembly. The alliance will use the funds to organise the street event, a space that will bring together hundreds of local citizens and showcase what can be achieved. They will work with local artists and musicians to help everyone imagine new possibilities, and friends from the local Saharan and Palestinian communities to use food as a tool for integration. All alliance organisations will attend, emphasising a message about the importance of active participation to change the city.

Alan Raposo and collaborators

Mercè Rua Fargues, Spain

Mercè’s objective was to bring together people involved in milk production and distribution in the valley of the Cerdagne for a kick-off meeting to imagine and plan a better milk distribution system. The project was born out of a concern about the widespread problem of plastic waste, which deeply affects the local environment. Mercè identified milk production and consumption as a key area where plastic waste can be reduced. At the same time, the fact that the valley is a transnational, self-contained ecosystem makes it a particularly relevant and interesting place to try this out. She is using the funding to gather all the relevant people, who represent different parts of the local ecosystem, for a ‘seed’ meeting to discuss and brainstorm the possibilities. Together they will look at how similar inverse logistics systems work elsewhere and think about how to make it work in la Cerdagne. The mid-to-long-term vision is to create a system in la Cerdagne where milk is packaged in reusable containers. These containers would be returned after use, cleaned, and reused, creating a sustainable cycle.

5/ Collective imagination as a way to hold the tension between operating within existing systems and driving alternative futures

From one perspective, almost all collective imagination work grapples with this tension, simply by exploring the future from the present moment. There is a huge gap between what is and what could be. And yet this tension is further pronounced when collective imagination work truly engages with those who are at the heart of the existing system, or grappling with some of our most embedded and change-resistant systems, such as governance. To be able to imagine collectively can be challenging enough, but to ensure that these imaginings interact with those who uphold the status quo and resist change — without doing so in a way that shuts down people’s imaginations — is a tightrope walk of different skills and capacities! The practitioners doing this work are not only highly skilled but also have relationships, often built gradually over many years, that allow them to tackle these challenges. It is fascinating to see practitioners in Europe grapple with this directly — alongside peers also doing this in the UK.

Noah Schöppl, The People’s Dreaming Collective, Germany

The People’s Dreaming Collective is a global constellation of radical public sector leaders dreaming up more just and loving models for how we govern. They facilitate generative gatherings and create open-source tools to imagine, explore, and bring to life audacious new visions for democracy. In government departments around the world, there exists a vast network of public servants challenging norms and steering bureaucracies toward more just and joyful paradigms. These radical public servants deftly navigate the tension between operating within government systems as they exist today and grappling with alternative futures. Everyday, they are imagining new ways of serving communities that are more inclusive, participatory, and loving. The People’s Dreaming Collective believe that radical public servants are essential and often overlooked dreamers and changemakers. With their deep knowledge of existing government systems, dedication to service, and desire for transformative change, radical public servants are uniquely equipped to be the midwives of new democratic systems. The Collective is committed to providing the support these public servants need to imagine and build new governing models.

Pedro Reis, Komuhn, Peniche, Portugal

Komuhn will develop a series of school-wide meetings and events on re-imagining local governments based on fairness and sustainability principles. This initiative aims to engage students, teachers, parents, and staff in learning, reflecting, and discussing politics and governance from a perspective of possibility. Recognising that many young people feel indifferent, negative, or hopeless about current systems, Komuhn’s goal is to foster conversations and experiences that highlight practices not typically associated with governance, such as openness, decentralisation, inclusivity, and long-term thinking. Over 3 to 12 months, they plan to facilitate gatherings — like open spaces, workshops, and discussion groups — culminating in a city-wide event with presentations, talks, and exhibitions, ideally with municipal participation. A dedicated website will document the project and provide tools for replication elsewhere.

Going forwards?

We hope to be able to support more practitioners in Europe to incubate practice and apply collective imagination across the continent. We’re curious whether there are other funders in Europe that might join Arising Quo in resourcing this work. Whilst there is huge value in the microfunding we provide we’re also interested in what could be achieved through offering larger amounts of money, particularly to those who want to continue the work they started using the microfunding. We’re curious about striking the right balance between continuing to support practitioners we’ve already supported and supporting new entrants to the space. We hope to have the chance to continue to explore these questions.

As ever, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me via zahra@huddlecraft.com

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Collective Imagination Practice
Collective Imagination Practice

Published in Collective Imagination Practice

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Zahra Davidson
Zahra Davidson

Written by Zahra Davidson

Non Exec Director & Associate, Huddlecraft

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