Dystopia and crisis: How can we imagine a better world when the world is burning?
What could be done about the crisis of imagination that is afflicting much of the world?

We can easily imagine ecological disaster or technological futures but struggle to picture how welfare, health or democracy could be better a generation from now. Geoff Mulgan, author of Another World is Possible will share both diagnosis and prescription, looking in particular at the role of universities in helping societies to think ahead.

The economist Milton Friedman once wrote that ‘only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around….[our basic function is to] develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.’

Was he right? And what does this imply at a time of accumulating crises?

This event will be moderated by Professor Ngaire Woods.
Date: 7 November 2022, 18:00 (Monday, 5th week, Michaelmas 2022)
Venue: Blavatnik School of Government, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter OX2 6GG
Venue Details: Blavatnik School of Government and Zoom
Speakers: Sir Geoff Mulgan (UCL), Professor Ngaire Woods (Dean, Blavatnik School of Government)
Organising department: Blavatnik School of Government
Organiser contact email address: events@bsg.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/events/dystopia-and-crisis
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Freya Paulucci Couldrick