Rewilding the Imagination

Any national approach to rebuilding the imagination must take access to nature seriously, and must also recognise the power of bringing more nature to where people live, to a ‘rewilding’ of our towns, cities and neighbourhoods.

‘There is a lack of opportunities for children to apply their imagination in a meaningful way … in a world that doesn’t value it. We see imagination as much more fundamental.

‘We need to rewild our imagination. We must learn how to dream again, and we have to learn that together.’

For them, imagination is a conservative and conserving force. But in any modern society, this collective unconscious, or imagination, is more fluid and open, with a stock of codes and symbols that can challenge orthodoxies. Beneath the surface of news, commentaries and political discussions lie these deeper shared ideas, ideals and pictures—some es