We have been chasing an interview with Phoebe Tickell for some time. (She’s a busy lady). We hope we will manage to catch up with her soon. In the meantime, we want to share this excellent interview by Planet Critical of her work in ‘Imagination Activism’.
Phoebe graduated in molecular biology from Cambridge University. Concerned with the need for fundamental change in the world, she co-founded several start-ups across education, food, sustainability, and tech sectors. She has brought her understanding of systems thinking and complexity to transforming society’s siloed and over-regulated institutions into something more participatory, which harnesses the natural intelligence of the collective. Recognising the need for decentralised governance, she is concerned with building systems that listen to peoples’ needs and dreams on a local level; that reflect the human capacity for imagination, and the sense for what is “right to do” in any given context.
She has called this work “Moral Imagination”. What we are particularly excited by in Phoebe’s work, is her intention to close the “action gap”. As she explains in the interview, we live in critical times. She believes moral imagination’s success depends on a complete collective rewiring of our institutions, which includes considering future generations, ancestors, and the more-than-human world. This is exemplified in her recent trailblazing work with Camden Council in London.
