Possibilities Literacy describes the interconnected competencies through which individuals and collectives perceive, craft, engage with and steward possibilities while developing mindsets oriented toward appreciating constraints, developing alternatives to “what is,” and fostering a sense of agency vis a vis “what could be.” This editorial introduces the framework, its 5 dimensions, 3 orientations and 15 competencies, alongside the recently proposed Possibilities Literacy Questionnaire (PoLiQu), a reflective method for exploring current practices, personal aspirations and perceived social expectations. We then apply Possibilities Literacy reflexively to generate new perspectives on its own scope and development. We argue that becoming possibility literate involves not simply producing more (new) ideas or things but perceiving possibilities at higher resolution, recognising how possibility spaces are governed, moving flexibly between modes of possibility-making, and valuing alternatives that remain unseen or unrealised. Possibilities Literacy therefore offers a framework, method and practice for examining how access to the possible is socially distributed, how particular futures acquire legitimacy, and how people and communities might transform the conditions under which possibilities become visible, credible, actionable and ethically sound.
Creativity depends in large part upon battles that are fought within the self, in pursuing challenging tasks in an ecologically relevant environmental context, between creativity-promoting and creativity-suppressing tendencies. Whether one will be creative, and if so, how creative, depends in part upon which forces win out, and to what extent. One’s possibilities for being creative depend at least as much on this battle as on any creative “ability.” This article analyzes the creativity of K., the main protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novel, The Castle , in terms of extant views on creativity, and specifically in terms of a person × task × situation interaction (PTSI) theory of creativity. In general, one can learn about creativity by analyzing how it plays out in the doings of certain characters in great works of literature. K.’s creative failure results in part from the suppressive tendencies in his environmental context, but also from suppressive attributes within himself that more than cancel out his creativity-promoting attributes. K. had opportunities to be creative and squelched them, not through lack of ability, but rather through closing off the possibilities that could have been open to him.
Contemporary discourse cultivates literacies for external domains – digital, financial, medial – yet lacks an equivalent framework for the fundamental human practice of self-understanding. This paper introduces self-literacy: the meta-competence of consciously engaging with one’s sense-making processes by “reading” and “writing” one’s own existence. Drawing on the New Literacy Studies and enactivist cognitive science, self-literacy is theorized as a cultivated meta-capacity built upon sense-making as a natural, embodied faculty. It operates across three registers grounded in Hegel, Taylor, and Ricoeur: personal literacy (values and purpose), narrative literacy (identity as life story), and somatic literacy (embodied existence). The paper then examines philosophical counseling as a practice that cultivates this meta-capacity: unlike psychotherapy, which remains programmatically abstinent toward ideals, and coaching, which optimizes sense-making instrumentally, philosophical counseling works on sense-making itself, aiming at philosophical health – a fruitful coherence of thinking, speaking, and acting. Convergent empirical research on narrative coherence, life transitions, and post-traumatic growth suggests that self-literacy functions as a form of existential resilience. Against the risk of reproducing neoliberal selfhood, the concluding sections expand the concept relationally and ecologically through compossibility and planetary thinking: reading one’s life includes reading one’s impact on human and more-than-human communities, present and future.
Frictionless, dematerialised environments (FDEs) are producing a paradox: a rise in cognitive exhaustion and somatic discomfort even as information environments become objectively more efficient. This editorial argues the progressive removal of material, bodily, and social resistance from knowledge environments does not expand cognitive possibility; it forecloses the conditions under which understanding has historically been assembled. What distinguishes the current moment is not merely the pace of change but the nature of the niche: for the first time, the dominant cognitive environment is genuinely immaterial and acquiescent, aligned with the Cartesian fantasy of mind liberated from body rather than with the embodied, situated reality of human cognition. It introduces the concept of the cognitive uncanny valley to account for the somatic discomfort that accompanies AI-generated knowledge. The editorial concludes with a call not for greater cognitive efficiency but for its opposite: the deliberate preservation of inefficiency, impasse, and not-knowing.
This article advances a structural framework arguing that some mythological systems offer structural models that can illuminate aspects of contemporary creative processes in contexts marked by uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Rather than proposing mythological belief or practice as a source of creative guidance, the article treats mythology as a cultural archive of cognitive structures that encode recurring patterns in human creativity. Drawing primarily on Hindu and Greek traditions, the analysis demonstrates that mythological configurations—such as the Ganesha–Yama dialectic and the system of the Nine Muses—anticipate and illuminate empirically validated dynamics in modern creativity research, including exploration–exploitation tensions, generative–selective cycles, domain specificity, and cross-domain synthesis. By integrating insights from structural anthropology, sociocultural creativity theory, computational creativity, and innovation studies, the article shows that mythological structures function as meta-procedural frameworks rather than prescriptive methods. These frameworks make visible liminal states, escalating constraints, and meaning-oriented judgment processes that remain undertheorized in contemporary models. The article concludes by arguing that structurally informed dialogue between mythological analysis and creativity research can enrich theoretical understanding without romanticizing or mystifying creative work.
Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial , teaches us much about negotiating the trials of living not only of living in Kafka’s world, but also in the modern world. This article analyzes some of what we can learn from the novel regarding intelligence as adaptation and its relationship to possibilities. The article opens with an introduction, which is followed by a brief summary of The Trial. The novel is then analyzed in terms of the theory of adaptive intelligence and its relationships to possibility. The roles of practical intelligence, creativity, and wisdom are examined, in particular with relationship to possibility. Next, some other interpretations of The Trial are presented from diverse philosophical and psychological viewpoints. The article then concludes by arguing that understanding how to live in a world of limited and often vague possibilities requires not merely general intelligence, but more importantly, a broader range of skills viewed as adaptive intelligence.
This editorial introduces the special issue on “Expanding Conceptions for Research on Possibility” and surveys the papers submitted by over 15 scholars from diverse fields and disciplinary backgrounds. Expanding our conceptions of research beyond traditional boundaries and silos, the papers in this volume articulate research as a world-disclosing and “world-making” practice, concerned not only with how the “world is” but with creating “a world to come”. Displaying a great variety of research methods and approaches, the articles delineate specific theoretical and methodological strategies for expanding the sense of the Possible in diverse educational and social contexts. The expansion of possibility research and practice is further discussed in relation to theoretical expansions, pedagogical expansions, more-than-human expansions, and possibility and futures thinking. The editorial concludes by highlighting the relevance of possibility research in the context of current global developments.
This article is developed from a presentation given at the 4th International Conference of Possibility Studies. In the context of a doctoral project in higher education, it explores how students, lecturers and materialised learning environments participate in creative work in interdisciplinary settings. In a series of walking ‘intra-views’, the intra-actions of humans, more-than-humans and disciplines, are conceptualised within an agential realist framework. The article contributes two methodological strategies which strive to implement Karen Barad’s proposal of a diffractive methodology. These two strategies, diffractive questioning and working with text fragments, are presented in the specific context of interdisciplinary modules taken by students in their second year of undergraduate study at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. For each strategy, I clarify how theoretical concepts were used, and share excerpts from materialised conversations about experiences of creative learning and teaching. The final section considers questions emerging from the post-presentation discussions at the conference. Consistent with agential realism, this article does not claim to provide a fixed ‘formula’ for diffractive analysis. Rather, its purpose is to offer specific examples of analysis, for further diffraction by researchers interested in using an agential realist framework.
Navigating ambiguity is increasingly recognized as a critical competency necessary for thriving in a complex world and for shaping futures. This paper introduces the d.school Ambiguity Navigation Instrument (DANI), a curriculum-aligned assessment tool that measures learners’ attitudes toward and strategies for navigating ambiguity. Unlike existing instruments that frame ambiguity as an inherently negative condition to be merely tolerated and an individual’s relationship to ambiguity as a stable psycho-social trait, DANI conceptualizes navigating ambiguity neutrally, and as a learnable skill, composed of two distinct factors: Navigating Ambiguity Attitude (NA Attitude) and Navigating Ambiguity Actions (NA Actions). A validation study at two universities demonstrates DANI’s effectiveness in detecting changes in students’ relationship with ambiguity following design-focused educational experiences. The instrument provides educators with a reliable method to assess curriculum effectiveness and offers students a starting point for reflection on their approach to ambiguity. DANI contributes to design education assessment, with potential applications beyond design, to support learning environments and experiences from all disciplines that better prepare students for the inherent ambiguity of the world.
Amidst the intensifying global crises, there is an urgent need for approaches that can foster imaginaries of positive futures. Drawing on the concept of an ethics of possibility , musical-artistic practices can serve as a catalyst for societal transformation by creating positive imaginaries that acknowledge and foster a consciously balanced interdependence within our ecosystems. The paper emphasizes the need for transdisciplinary, rebellious research approaches to enhance ecological imagineries. A Soil Music Paradigm is introduced, interconnecting regenerative ecology and musical practices. This paradigm is grounded in the principle of regeneration, aiming to build life-supporting resources through active engagement. The paper argues for an immersive, appreciative ecological inquiry as an approach to enhance future artistic as well as educational settings. By bridging disciplinary boundaries and embracing open processes, this research offers perspectives on the transformative power of soil music to raise awareness, alter current toxic trajectories, and create ecological imaginaries.
Embedding sustainability, environment and place into education has been recognised as a key strategy for addressing the climate crisis and providing constructive hope for the future. This paper reports on a project to co-design curriculum resources which brought together the expertise of teachers and academics to achieve this aim. By combining creative pedagogical skills with cutting edge research knowledge, sixteen place-based resource packs were developed. These go beyond the teaching of factual knowledge and embed environmental issues within a range of curriculum subjects, developing pupils’ relationships with their locality. The scope covered sciences, humanities, creative arts and vocational subject areas across all phases of education. By exploring the experiences and reflections of teachers and academics involved, this paper demonstrates the importance of developing positive relationships, built on trust and empathy, which enabled a horizontal rather than hierarchical way of working. Participants recognised and valued each other’s expertise and used this to co-produce materials which could have real-life social value in our locality. This process has the potential to be transferable to other settings and the paper concludes with key reflections which could support the development of similar projects in the future.
This paper explores how the imagination of possible futures can address socioeconomic challenges under conditions of polycrisis—specifically in the field of higher economic education. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of Futures Literacy and Possibility Thinking, the study investigates the transformative potentials of futures engagement and the barriers that prevent it. Based on twelve adapted Futures Literacy Laboratories and 25 in-depth interviews with students in socio-economic master’s programmes at four German universities, the analysis identifies structural, emotional, epistemic, and institutional constraints that inhibit imaginative openness. Rather than framing these barriers as obstacles to be removed, the study examines how they can be held and responded to through pedagogical design. Emotional trust, embodied practices, playful methods, and the legitimisation of hesitation emerged as enabling conditions. Futures Literacy is thus not understood as a transferable skillset but also as a situated, relational, and affective capacity—requiring curricular anchoring, ethical facilitation, and safe, dialogic spaces. Imagining possible futures becomes central not only as a method but also as a way of cultivating economic imagination, agency, and critical reflection in the face of uncertainty. The findings suggest that fostering possibility thinking in economic education requires a shift towards engaging with economic challenges not through fixed solutions, but through the sustained exploration of contingent, plural, and socially grounded possibilities.
Imagining realities that do not yet exist is a fundamental aspect of human experience. However, the ability to generate alternative possibilities does not operate in a vacuum, as it is shaped by multiple factors, from socioeconomic conditions to cultural contexts. This analysis examines the interaction between possibility and context within Sen's capabilities approach, with a particular focus on the role of adaptive preferences, to explore how structural inequalities might influence individuals' horizons of possibility. Subsequently, it addresses the implications of these dynamics for educational practice, considering the potential of possibility thinking as a pedagogical resource for promoting critical reflection.
This empirical exploration introduces the concept of creative survival as experienced by young adult gay-identified males across three cultures. Qualitative designs including Grounded Theory, Arts-Based Research, and Heuristic Inquiry were used to analyze the narratives of 36 co-researchers, 12 each from the U.S., Brazil, and Turkey. The outcomes of the analysis highlighted how creative skills were employed to assist in the decision to disclose their sexual identity as an event and also how creativity effectively contributed to their survival across cultural norms, laws and traditions. A creative synthesis, a final process step in heuristic inquiry, offers three vignettes that demonstrate through the co-researchers' own words how this was accomplished. This unique form of research including arts-based inquiry assists in making the research outcomes more accessible to the broader public and beyond academia. The sense of belonging through community and reflection on internal and relational mediators is emphasized and offers hope beyond merely surviving to include thriving as a gay man.
The first purpose of this experimental (post)qualitative research paper is to illustrate diverse possibilities of neurodiverse movement and classroom variations across different spaces in a neurodiversity-affirming summer camp. The summer camp was designed to facilitate the development of computational thinking (CT) using wearable music sensors (WMS) for neurodiverse youth. Both the WMS and CT lessons were co-designed through a research practice partnership and had been previously tried out with neurodiverse middle school students in various settings. Our research question addresses: How do neurodivergent learning spaces map across/within/through physical, pedagogical, and technological flows during a 1-week neurodiversity-affirming summer camp? The second purpose is to experiment with topological mappings as one potential form of neurodivergent data (analysis) interactions. We illustrate how molar/neurotypical and molecular/neurodiverse topological flows potentially structure neurodiverse learning spaces and spacetime. Implications extend to re-conceptualizing possibilities of social research methods and designing neurodiverse, embodied inquiry approaches for neurodiverse educational contexts.
Early recorded history of Pennsylvania (USA) is deeply rooted in the relationship between the Lenape tribe and theEuropeans who settled Pennsylvania. Facing a dormant language, the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania asked the authorsto assist friends and members of the Lenape Nation to use Lenape. Designing with a Lenape Chief and Clan Mother, ateam of four designers as part of a graduate instructional design studio, set out on an 8-month design journey todesign a Lenape spirituality and prayer learning experience. Invited to transformative experiences of the possible, thedesign team engaged in a moment of use approach for design and designed for a clear and simple purpose - useLenape phrases and words in daily life. Following a narrative inquiry methodology, our research question was: howdid a design team undergo our invitation to transformative experiences of the possible as they designed the Lenapespirituality and prayer learning experience? We went into the Lenape design project feeling that the design studiowould provide the space for transformative experience to occur. We came out of the Lenape design project believingthe design studio did. We also discovered the importance of all-collaborative practice to inviting transformative expe-rience of the possible.
Generative AI is reshaping creative practice by expanding what individuals can produce while complicating how effort, authorship, and mastery are understood. This article introduces AI-mediated creative agency (hereafter, mediated agency) as a framework for explaining how human-AI collaboration reshapes creative self-efficacy and the horizons of creative possibility. Mediated agency refers to the experience of acting creatively when intention, process, and outcome are co-produced by human and algorithmic elements, producing new forms of attribution ambiguity, opacity, and uneven control. Extending Bandura's account of self-efficacy, the framework reconceptualizes his four sources of efficacy information as relational processes interpreted across three dimensions: control over process, authorship, and creative identity. Grounded in sociocultural theory and situated within distributed agency, co-creativity, and technology adoption perspectives, the framework presents testable propositions and educational implications for studying and supporting creative self-efficacy in AI-mediated contexts. Sustaining creative self-efficacy, and over time broader creative confidence, requires attending not only to what AI enables people to produce but to how mediation shapes their experience of contribution, capability, and future creative possibility.
This paper explores the key role played by heuristics and biases in futures thinking. Heuristics and biases shape how individuals and groups envision futures, often leading to errors or narrower scenarios. Twenty-five common heuristics and biases related to future-oriented thinking have been identified from previous literature and classified into three categories. The Cherry Picking category includes nine heuristics and biases that may impact information collected and used in foresight. The Group Bubble category contains eight heuristics and biases in social interactions. Finally, the eight heuristics and biases of the Outcome Misperception category lead the focus to a “desired” outcome rather than various possible scenarios. Building on this classification, we explore possible mitigation strategies in foresight methodologies. We argue that awareness of these cognitive mechanisms in foresight practices could enable futurists to uncover neglected future possibilities, improving both the richness and applicability of foresight processes and helping to address future myopia. Rather than providing an exhaustive review, this paper aims to equip foresight practitioners with tools to enhance creativity and critical thinking.
Increasing concerns about social disconnection and the epidemic of loneliness have emphasised the importance of social connection for the mental and physical health, productivity and general wellbeing of individuals, communities and society. Robust multidisciplinary evidence indicates a strong association between social connection and positive health and wellbeing outcomes. Social relationships provide people with a sense of belonging, purpose, meaning and support and are vital to health and longevity. Yet until now, research has defined social connection and participation almost entirely in human terms. With a view to extending the scope of existing research, this paper speculates on the possibilities in problematising social connection as more-than-human. It takes a posthuman feminist, new materialist approach to examining the affective more-than-human engagements that occur in museums. What these museum encounters highlight is diverse more-than-human modes of belonging and participation that raise awareness of interdependence, injustices, inequities and other societal concerns. Encounters increased self-esteem and moved participants to voice care, concern and collective responsibility. More-than-human encounters such as these open up many possibilities for simultaneously mitigating social disconnection and loneliness whilst fostering engagement with shared complex challenges and an awareness of our fundamental interdependence with a multitude of nonhumans.
What has led to the tendency of self-punishment and self-devaluation in women’s life-writing? Situated in my practice as a life-writing tutor in China, grounded in feminist new materialism and affective methodologies, this paper applies hugging in an online educational context to investigate whether/how the embodied everyday practice can transform the self-punishment tendencies and what pedagogical possibilities it holds. Through practice-based research, semi-structural conversations, and thematic analysis, three common contributing factors to Chinese women’s self-punishment tendency emerge: (1) the patriarchal tradition, (2) the single-dimensional numeric assessment system, (3) a punish/reward mindset in family upbringing. Lastly, it presents a narrative of how these three factors ‘diffracted’ in individuals as well as the affective traces of hugging, leading to a final discussion underpinned by uncertainty and fluidity, instead of causality and certainty.
