Unleashing our imagination for political and social change in the Liverpool City Region

Posted on: 18 January 2023 by Mark Swift in Blog

In the first of a two-part blog, Heseltine Institute Visiting Fellow Mark Swift discusses the use of imagination in policymaking. Citing a range of examples of creative thinking in the public and third sectors, Mark highlights a range of methodologies designed to harness our collective imagination.

“As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think”
Toni Morrison

Introduction

The Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci (1891 - 1937) wrote of the ‘interregnum’ which he described as the time between the death of the old-world order, while the new cannot be borne. He explained that a great variety of ‘morbid symptoms’ would appear. Recent scholars contend that we have arrived at this point in time. That being so, how might we begin to harness our individual and collective imagination during this time of interregnum to bring about a better future for generations after us?

History offers up examples of times of struggle and adversity which gave way to imaginative and progressive ideas. For example, the Second World War was followed by the creation of the welfare state and the launch of the National Health Service. The recent Covid-19 pandemic however is noticeably different. The palpable urgency of some political actors to return to the status quo, despite the political rhetoric of ‘Build Back Better’ could be seen as a crisis of imagination in politics and an unwillingness by those with power to imagine alternatives to the neoliberal paradigm. Some political theorists have suggested there is a narrow ‘window’ for policy change which opens when particular circumstances align. There is a risk that the current window, created by recent crises, could be sealed shut if political and policy actors do not act.

Reimagining business and the public sector

Our capacity for imagination is not benign of course, and there are examples where imagination is used for malign purposes. However, there are countless examples where individual and collective imagination is being put to good use to create political and/or societal change. One notable example is the rapid proliferation of social enterprises, which apply sustainable business practices to bring about social change. For example, there are now over 26,000 Community Interest Companies or ‘CICs’ in the UK. In the 2021/22 financial year the CIC Regulator reported an 8% increase in the number of new incorporations, with 5,339 new CICs established.

This could be viewed as a grassroots movement for social change, and a good example of individual and collective imagination put into action to bring about new products, services and processes that generate positive social outcomes. Perhaps this resurgence of citizen and community imagination is a response to the limitations of political systems to implement progressive policies that deliver the sorts of societal changes people dream of for their future and those of their children. Policymakers can learn from social entrepreneurs and community activists who are able to get their ideas for social change off the ground often with limited resources or support. Similarly, there is growing interest in public intrapreneurship to support public sector reform. This recognises that some public sector professionals can bring about change despite often overly bureaucratic and risk averse processes that stifle the imaginative and creative potential of the workforce and hold back social innovation processes.

The introduction of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 has helped to cultivate imagination in many public sector organisations looking to leverage greater economic, social and environmental (social value) impact. Indeed, the social value concept has itself been re-imagined and now extends beyond its original focus on leveraging social value externally through public sector procurement processes, to a broader notion of how public sector organisations can themselves generate social value over and above their mandated statutory duties. NHS Cheshire and Merseyside has been trailblazing this expanded approach as a Social Value Accelerator site in the UK. Their work has included the development of an Anchor Institution Charter binding public sector organisations to commitments such as ensuring their workforce earn at least the real living wage, as well as the development and implementation of net zero carbon plans, and achieving zero carbon by 2040. The coproduction approach they have adopted to develop and implement this regional social value initiative includes extensive community engagement which has cultivated the imagination of wider stakeholders generating new ideas and insights.

Imagination in practice

I’ve been co-facilitating ‘reimagining’ processes with communities for many years now at Wellbeing Enterprises with the aim of improving health outcomes and tackling social challenges. Some years ago in Halton I teamed up with academics, cross sector professionals and the community to undertake a project to co-create a dream manifesto for the borough (see image). We used Ruth Levita’s Utopia as Method as our conceptual framework, which considers utopian thinking not as the promotion of the ideal society, but instead as a means of inviting a democratic debate about what factors enable human flourishing. Utopia can be understood as a method, not as a goal. It is a way in which we can explore the economic, social and political processes necessary to promote wellbeing.

In small groups, we spent time visualising our dreams for the community, and then shared these dreams with other groups to amalgamate these into one collective dream. From here, we devoted time to ‘thinking backwards’ from our collective dream to consider what changes might need to come about to make our dream for the future a reality. This formed the basis of our plan of action.

I am currently facilitating a project with partners to reimagine new ways of supporting families and children affected by conduct disorder with R Health, Runcorn’s Primary Care Network as part of the national NHS England Complete Care Community (CCC) initiative. CCC aims to enable a more systematic approach to addressing underlying health inequalities that exist within communities. This project entails engaging with and involving parents, children, and professionals at every stage in a deep learning process to understand both the challenges and opportunities that present, and from here we will begin a reimagining process involving community artists to offer up a shared alternative future which will be the driving focus of our collaborative efforts.

Wellbeing Enterprises has also been testing out other ways to harness individual and collective imagination to improve health outcomes across the Liverpool City Region. Our ‘Be the Change’ initiative invites local people with ideas for social change to apply for seed funding to get their ideas off of the ground. We have funded over 60 nascent social entrepreneurs and community champions over the years to set up initiatives like ukulele groups and environmental activism clubs, or to become wellbeing advocates in their communities. Another example is Awesome Liverpool City Region (of which I’m a Trustee), which is a chapter of the Awesome Foundation grassroots movement which supports community projects through microgrants which are distributed monthly. These sorts of initiatives help to harness the imaginative and creative potential of citizens and communities, by putting their creative ideas to good use in the service of others.

Our individual and collective imagination will be a critical resource over the coming decades as society becomes ever more perturbed by the economic, political and social fallout of blindly pursuing a neoliberal economic framework. Already, we see great examples of grassroots imagination in practice in the rapid growth of the social enterprise sector, which one could argue is an attempt to reimagine our economy and leverage social value. Also, in the public sector, and the ongoing initiatives which aim to leverage greater social value. In part two of this blog, I will unpack some key elements to enabling the imaginative process to get underway.

Part 2 of this blog post can be found here.