Routledge Handbook for Creative Futures

"This fascinating volume contains important contributions that initiate the process of weaning us away from the overly-instrumental and exploitative modernist mindset we have inadvertently acquired through the imperative of economic progress. This mindset has become, as Alfred North Whitehead observed, as natural as the air we breathe; it is so translucent, and so pervading, and so seemingly necessary that we are often unaware how fundamentally it shapes our perceptions, priorities and actions. It is time for us to reperceive and rethink our priorities and the contributors to this volume explore a variety of ways by which this can be realised. In this handbook, contributors explore these challenges and attempt to discover a "sweet spot" between despair and naïve optimism in addressing the massive socio-economic, political and "environmental planetary challenges" facing our time. The volume offers fresh perspectives that are more ecologically attuned but that have been surreptitiously marginalized by the onslaught of modernity and its imperatives. They importantly initiate the creation of new possible futures by exploring how to rethink the fundamental issues of our time."

Robert Chia, Research Professor of Management, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, UK

"The Handbook for Creative Futures shows how glorious it is to be young now while old systems fail so that odysseys of phoenixes of their imagination and creation can rise from the ashes."

Jim Dator, Professor Emeritus and Former Director, Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

"To paraphrase William Blake nearly 200 years later ‘we must co-create our futures, or be enslaved by another person's.’ This remarkable compendium of perspectives on the creative 'future potential of the present moment' reminds all of us to take our future seriously by consciously stepping into our agency of co-creating it. Life's core patterns are about creation, regeneration and transmutation (death and rebirth). If we aim to co-create wisely, we should keep this in mind as we collectively redesign the human impact on Earth from its current degenerative influence to re-align with our species inheritance and future as diverse regenerative cultures everywhere who are not only healers but creative expressions of the ecosystems they dwell in as custodians."

Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD Intl. Futures Forum, author of 'Designing Regenerative Cultures', Spain

"Once upon a time, talking about ‘the future’ brought about hope of inevitable progress. Not anymore. Despair is more easily discernible than hope. But it does not have to be that way, and this wonderful volume shows how - how to face reality head on and not lose faith in the ways it may be transformed. A diverse and brilliant array of authors discuss imaginatively how we may bring about creative futures. It couldn’t have been more timely or necessary. A fascinating volume."

Haridimos Tsoukas,The Columbia Ship Management Professor of Strategic Management, University of Cyprus, and Distinguished Research Environment Professor of Organizational Behaviour, University of Warwick, UK