Redefining Imagination Resources

A dominant definition of what constitutes a preferred "resource" is something or someone new and sophisticated, with lots of education or money. Such a definition severely constrains community imagination. In fact, people and places often excluded from citizen leadership and civic dialogue initiatives can be especially powerful resources for learning and imagination. An imagination resource can be any individual, family, group, space, relationship, question, condition, value, technology, medium, language, lifestyle, art, music, culture, structure, process, etc., through and by which those living in a locality (like a city or a neighborhood) are able to interact, understand, learn and imagine together. Thus, everything either is or can be an imagination resource.

A similar argument holds true for spaces of imagination. The spaces of a family home, a street corner, a park or garden, a forest or lake or mountains, an office, a local store or business, a movie theater, an artist’s studio, etc., are all physical spaces where imagination often flourishes. But we can also think about "space" in other ways: conceptual space, spiritual space, emotional space, relational space, contextual space… For example, the kind of space that emerges through conversations with friends, or when viewing a painting, or when singing, or when laughing with siblings, or when riding a bicycle — these spaces are also all potential spaces in which learning and imagination can grow.

The difference between any resource/space and an imagination resource/space is our approach to it. What do we appreciate it for? What does it offer us? What values or convictions do we draw from it? How does it inspire trust? Does it enable us to take risks and make mistakes, without fear or undue anxiety? How many diverse kinds of connections are opened up by virtue of it?

This way of redefining our selves and our communities expands the notion of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). Our ‘assets’ include all those imagination resources and spaces, which enable reciprocal relationships within our communities, and which help to reinforce our individual and collective motivation and spirit. It is upon the foundation of these ‘assets’ that we establish the best of who we are today and grow a sense of hope for the future.

As creators of an imagination movement, we have the power to define and redefine resources and spaces, which means that we can constantly generate more of them. They are infinite. The more our perspective is oriented toward possibilities in each and every person and place, the more resources and spaces we can see and cultivate. As these spaces and resources are connected to one another, in a dynamic, organic whole ecology, they help to broaden and deepen a movement of imagination. They also lead the way towards unlimited relationships and actions for public good.