Iniciativa Joven

We, the participants and speakers in the 1st International Meeting with the Imagination Society are convinced that imagination can be the key element in a new social, cultural and economic development model for 21st century society.

Imagination, together with knowledge and understanding, is the main human peculiarity. Imagination is a writer’s creativity, a creator’s artistic genius. Throughout history, it has unleashed great scientific ideas, the main business successes and the most accurate solutions for social problems. Using our imagination is the best way to think.

Our attention must focus on imagination in order to face the challenges of a society that forces us to adapt ourselves to change and risk; a globalized society where the whole world is a place for exchange and whose needs and problems can only be faced by new solutions through imaginative thought formulas.

We, the participants and speakers in the 1st International Meeting with the Imagination Society acknowledge the Extremadura’s unique effort in implementing an original project — El Gabinete de Iniciativa Joven — which will help us to prepare ourselves for the imagination society that we foresee.

We are approaching social settings where economic practices premised on expertise, memorable circumstances experience, dreams or emotions will be widely spread. And that world of countless possibilities needs to rely on imagination and radical innovation as key instruments to create the initiatives — always in process — which will fill future settings not yet perceived.

Imagination and innovation must and can be represented in all fields of human activity: in culture and arts, in social and sharing initiatives and in politics. Social needs cannot be isolated from the market and neither can the economic factor from those other needs. Therefore, social progress is also premised on promoting imagination and innovation in businesses and in the products and services they offer.

However, the important thing is not technology, but the use of technology. Governments’ efforts to promote technological innovation must be coupled with a determined drive of users’ imagination. They need to promote the spread of new technological tools, as well as the imaginative capacity of those using them. The great challenge is imagining how to apply technology and how to create new concepts for it.

Imagination needs incentives and its encouragement must hold public and private responsibility. Innovation needs training. It is a fine combination of ingenuity and engineering, vision, passion and effort. And it can and must be encouraged in this way. Public institutions, with the help of social and private initiatives, must promote educational programs for the stimulation of citizens’ imaginative capacity.

Imagination must also be applied to solve other problems of society. There must be a social inventiveness which helps create a new form of communication within citizenship in order for them to face their problems. Such imagination will be impossible without people’s participation. Talking about the Imagination Society means talking about people, groups and associated networks getting involved and radically innovating, also apparent in the social field.

Imagination must also be applied to solve other problems of society. There must be a And there’s no imagination without common sense, without good sense to coordinate efforts and resources, to integrate others’ knowledge and experience into our knowledge. Every effort devoted to forming future society must be taken from the previous experience of others.

Imagination must also be applied to solve other problems of society. There must be a The future belongs to young people and to young people’s imagination. Bearing in mind this idea and the precedent established by Extremadura and the Gabinete de Iniciativa Joven, we would like to invite you all, society and public authorities to be committed to imagination as an alternative economic, cultural and social development model for the 21st century.