Design for micro-utopias: making the unthinkable possible

Everyone is already painfully aware of our predicament - ecological extinctions, dwindling fossil fuel reserves and economic chaos.

The solutions are less obvious, despite the many opportunities that surround us.

We have never had more access to resources, knowledge and technology but this is not the problem.

What we lack most is creative thinking, fuelled by collective optimism.

In a pragmatic world run by careerist experts this is hardly surprising.

As voters and consumers we are trained to choose and complain, but not how to envisage what we really, really want.

How can we design a better world unless we revive the art of dreaming?

For without dreams we are lost. Perhaps it should be the duty of all citizens to imagine alternative futures; in effect, to think more like designers.

After all, designers have always been dreamers, and have often found ways to realize their dreams.