Reimagining Democracy for the Future w/ Geoff Mulgan and Marcial Boo

As democracy comes under more pressure than ever, we need new ways to take it forward. At this webinar, two leading thinkers reimagine democracy for the future: Marcial Boo, author of The Rules of Democracy (Bristol University Press) and Geoff Mulgan, author of Another World is Possible (Hurst Publishers) will discuss the ideas in their books and compare their different approaches, followed by an audience Q&A.

About Another World Is Possible

As the world confronts the fast catastrophe of Covid and the slow calamity of climate change, we also face a third, less visible emergency: a crisis of imagination. We can easily picture ecological disaster or futures dominated by technology. But we struggle to imagine a world in which people thrive and where we improve our democracy, welfare, neighbourhoods or education. Many are resigned to fatalism—yet they desperately want transformational social change.

This book argues that, although the threats are real, we can use creative imagination to achieve a better future: visualising where we want to go and how to get there. Political and social thinker Geoff Mulgan offers lessons we can learn from the past, and methods we can use now to open up thinking about the future and spark action.

Drawing on social sciences, the arts, philosophy and history, Mulgan shows how we can recharge our collective imagination. From Socrates to Star Wars, he provides a roadmap for the future.

About the speakers

Sir Geoff Mulgan is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London. Formerly he was chief executive of Nesta, and held government roles (1997–2004), including as the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit director and as Downing Street’s head of policy. He is the founder or co-founder of many organisations, from Demos to Action for Happiness, and the author of many books.

Marcial Bragadini Boo chairs the UK’s Institute of Regulation and has been Chief Executive both of IPSA, the MPs’ pay and expenses watchdog, and of the UK’s Public Health Register, regulating health professionals. He is a former Director of the National Audit Office and currently a Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit at UCL, a Board Trustee of the think tank Demos and a policy advisor to the University of Bath.