Imagining Futures with Imaginables

Covid-19 pandemic provides compelling evidence of the Interconnectedness and interdependence of the world where a holistic and collective approach is required to solve local, regional, and global sustainable development challenges of the present world by imagining and creating alternative futures.

If we can only imagine the future, we need to be aware of what imagination is, how it works, and how we enhance it.

Imagination is the power of the mind without which we cannot see anything or process it. Imagination is the screen on which our instincts, senses, emotions, ideas, and concepts are presented for rational analysis, introspection, and creative imagination. Creative imagination blends impressions and concepts to form novel ideas that are neither necessarily rational nor real.

Imagination presents the information we receive from the external world through senses, the internal world through feelings, and information from memory for processing through three filters, i.e., emotional, rational, and creative.

“Theory of Imagination and Imaginables” is constructed using an interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach.

This paper presents a “Theory of Imagination and Imaginables” and a “Model of Imaginables” to construct a holistic pedagogical model suited for our interconnected and interdependent world and to create a sustainable, equitable, and humane future.

Keywords: Imagination, Imaginable, Futures Studies, SDGs, Futures Literacy