Greenup Newsletter 14: Wicked India Week 1 Notes
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Video of the First Session
In case you want to refresh your memory or you couldn’t attend the live session, here’s the video:
Imaginary Institutions & Institutions of the Imagination
We had a brief discussion on skills vs imagination in the Q&A at the end of the first session and I said this course is more about imagination (75%) than about skill building (25%), but that was a misleading answer. What I should have said was the following:
This course is 100% about imagination as a skill.
We are so used to treating imagination as a dreamy quality that some possess (mostly to their detriment) and that it mostly happens inside our heads. But in reality, imagination happens out there with others in the world. And our societies are full of institutions that enable (certain) imaginations. In turn, these institutions are sustained by our collective imaginations. In short:
Institutions of the imagination and imaginary institutions are one and the same thing
The parliament is an example of an institution of the imagination: what else is a debate about a bill other than a debate about whose imagination of the future has to be resourced by the state?
The social institutions we inhabit - elections, parties, democracy - were products of some people’s imagination. We take them for granted today but they were sharply contested - to the point of death - when the institutions were fresh in people’s minds.
What institutions will we imagine and contest in a climate changed world?
Democracy introduced a whole host of new institutions of justice into societies that were (and remain) starkly unequal. What I find most exciting about a ‘wicked response’ to climate change is that we have the opportunity to imagine and install a range of new institutions into our societies, institutions that not only promote justice among peoples, but also new institutions that bring the non-human world into the realm of politics.
Reflections on the Breakout Session
Defining social institutions was an interesting task because it involved being aware of the current paradigm and acknowledging institutions that one may not always agree with or support. For instance, while RWAs and government bodies were clear to everyone, the role of peoples' movements was uncertain until everyone agreed that the institution is indeed a legitimate social entity.
Similarly, the imagination of current institutions is based on our own social realities and interests - agroecological bodies or schools. Therefore, the future institutions imagined were almost in line with some of the realities that are on the one hand considered unattainable, ideologically divergent, or unnecessary, but on the other hand those that present a realistic picture of potential, e.g., what would a humanist shakha look like? When imagining the future, it seems that retaining the structure of a shakha is one way to transition into imaginary worlds. How does imagination dictate and therefore guide our deliberate choices?
If everyone believes that their social status is founded on being able to vacation in the Himalayas, what does that do to the ecology, culture and local imagination?
Is there a way to reflect on current imaginations, to introspect as well as examine the variety around us? The course is off to an interesting start.