Abstract

This chapter approaches collective futures from the standpoint of creativity and imagination. Through these lenses, the construction of collective futures is a creative act that engages multiple actors, audiences, and cultural artefacts. By advancing the notion of perspectival collective futures, a key question emerges: How are perspectives on the collective future built, contested, adopted, and transformed in interaction? In this chapter, I outline and illustrate three ways of building collective futures: by imagining the future for others, with others, and towards others. These are not mutually exclusive types and it is precisely their interplay that should concern us when examining collective futures, their origins, dynamic, and consequences. The chapter finally offers a critical agenda for future researchers in this area.