The Seeds of a Future We Want: Collective Refuturing Workshop

Guest Blog Post: By Kate Leftin

I co-hosted the Collective Refuturing Workshop on April 22nd during DC Climate Week. Photo credit: Kathryn Korfonta

It seems there is broad recognition in the environmental movement that the fear-based narrative of climate change and ecological destruction is not working for us. Yet, the sobering reality is that the fear of a dystopian future if the status quo doesn’t change is getting most of the attention. This is problematic because what we pay attention to is what we grow more of, which this time of intense backlash to ecological stewardship demonstrates. When people are presented with something to be afraid of, they are inclined to fight against it.

This observation has plagued me for a long time, but when I heard Rob Hopkins discuss his book How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World, it inspired a desire to help people create a vision of the future to fall in love with. Fear may repel people, but love attracts them. Love, if given a chance, can motivate communities to roll up their sleeves and get to work in service of something greater than themselves.

Visual notes by Sarah DeWitt @change_artfully

This insight led me to bring a small group of people together in Arlington for a short workshop that gave participants a chance to imagine a future they could fall in love with and discuss it. That discussion generated connections among myself and three of the participants - Kathryn Korfonta, Claudia Menasche, and Sarah Dewitt - who became collaborators and co-hosts for the Collective Refuturing Workshop event held during DC Climate Week.

At our DC Climate Week event, participants were again brought together by a shared desire for something better. They had a chance to take a journey to a place they love in the year 2035, a version of the future in which everything that could be done to build a healthier world, had been done.

After taking this journey, participants had a chance to discuss their visions with each other. The ideas that were generated in that discussion were diverse, but they formed a tapestry of collective wisdom that included themes of health, safety, diversity, community connection, and freedom. Everyone had imagined different specific scenarios, but they all shared the same basic human needs. In the process, participants noticed that small seeds of this potentially emerging future were already happening, at least somewhere in the world. Suddenly the attention shifted from what we’re afraid will happen, to the better alternative we can build. Refocusing our attention there makes all the difference.

We plan to have more events like this in the months to come. Stay informed about our upcoming events by signing up for the Collective Refuturing Workshop series mailing list.