Belonging, Care, and Repair

Who makes the future?

The futures in this report offer glimpses of three alternative worlds in 2036: worlds where the most important things are belonging, care, and repair. They are neither utopian nor dystopian but somewhere in between; a little like real life, but fifteen years ahead.

Each future, or imaginary, is an invitation to civil society organisations and funders to look beyond the relentless present moment and plan instead for what might – or what should – come next; an inspiration to create the worlds we want, not just the worlds we think we’ll get. 

The themes explored include personal identity and social division, the desire for spiritual purpose and belonging, and the redistribution and transfer of power. Each imaginary touches on parts of human existence that tend to get pushed out of forward plans and strategy documents because they are intangible and difficult to measure – things that are often taken for granted until it is too late – and which civil society is in a unique place to shape and create. 

These futures were developed in a series of workshops with people from across UK civil society in Autumn 2021. You can read the whole document to find out more about our process, or skip straight to Section 3 to explore the imaginaries. However you decide to read this report, we hope you find it intriguing and thought-provoking. 

Dominique Barron, Rachel Coldicutt, Stephanie Pau, Anna Williams

March 2022