Utopian Pulses — experiments in social dreaming

Utopian Pulses is a monthly blog series in which Josie Chambers shares creative approaches for collectively imagining the world otherwise. From challenging seemingly inevitable unjust futures to facilitating alternative forms of politics, each month, Utopian Pulses invites you into new ways of enabling our collective imagination to flourish.

Portrait of researcher Josephine Chamber with blue background. She wears a green top.

Josie Chambers is an Assistant Professor at the Urban Futures Studio in the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Her work weaves together critical, artistic, and imaginative concepts and approaches to collaboratively discover possibilities for transformative change with diverse societal groups. For more formal reflections, see Josie’s peer-reviewed research: https://www.uu.nl/staff/JMChambers. To discuss creative approaches for cultivating collective imagination, get in touch with Josie at j.m.chambers@uu.nl

Blogs

  • Around the future in eighty worlds

    When we imagine “the future”, what do we conjure up?...[and] what about the very shape of the future itself? Is it linear? Branching? Circular? Throughout history, people have tried to give shape to the future. This piece offers no comprehensive tour of this history. Yet it does share some glimpses of how we might see the future in different ways, or rather different worlds. Here we begin our journey around the future in eighty worlds, even if we visit just a few for now…

    Portrait of researcher Josephine Chamber with blue background. She wears a green top.
    Josie Chambers
    Urban Futures Studio

  • Notes on the utopian classroom

    Having spent much of my life in classrooms — as student or teacher, I have seen that learning goals and content only go so far. We must fundamentally reimagine the form of the classroom. Here I share my recent experiment in creating a utopian classroom.

    Portrait of researcher Josephine Chamber with blue background. She wears a green top.
    Josie Chambers
    Urban Futures Studio

  • An experiment in musical dreaming

    When offered the chance to perform a live musical opening for the 14th International Sustainability Transitions Conference, Josie Chambers, Steve Williams & Noor Noor sought to connect emotionally to where we are with sustainability transitions, yet also offer a glimpse of what could be. In this first blog they explore the question: can music deepen our reflection and imagination in global spaces?

    Portrait of researcher Josephine Chamber with blue background. She wears a green top.
    Josie Chambers
    Urban Futures Studio