Mobilizing Social and Political Imagination

Sir Geoff Mulgan CBE is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL).  Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation, between 2011 and the end of 2019.   From 1997 to 2004 Geoff had roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office.   From 2004 to 2011 he was the first Chief Executive of The Young Foundation. He was the first director of the think-tank Demos; and has been a reporter on BBC TV and radio.

He has a PhD in telecommunications and has been a visiting professor at London School of Economics (LSE) and Melbourne University, a senior visiting scholar at Harvard University and President of the Innovation Design Department at the Italian University for Design (IAAD) in Turin.   He has also been a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy.

His latest books are – ‘Another World is Possible’ – on reviving social and political imagination – which came out in 2022, ‘Prophets at a tangent: how art shapes social imagination’, published early 2023, and ‘When Science Meets Power’ which is published winter 2023/24.

ABSTRACT: Geoff had had a career working top down in governments, bottom up in social and community projects, and as an academic making sense of the patterns. He will talk about what he calls the ‘crisis of imagination’, the lack of good pathways to the future. He will share ideas on how it can be addressed, whether within governments or through the work of social sciences and the arts.