Possibility Studies: Foundations, Core Concepts, Applications

Possibility Studies are an emerging interdisciplinary field concerned with how individuals, groups and societies engage with possibilities, including imagined futures, unrealised alternatives and transformative forms of action. Drawing on psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, creativity research, futures studies and related disciplines, it examines how possibilities are perceived, constructed, negotiated, constrained and enacted within cultural, social and material contexts. Central topics include imagination, agency, anticipation, creativity, counterfactual thinking, hope and social transformation. What distinguishes Possibility Studies is their focus on possibility itself as an object of inquiry. Rather than concentrating on a single domain such as creativity, innovation, futures, identity or social change, the field investigates the conditions under which alternatives become imaginable, the factors that enable or constrain them, and the processes through which they are explored and realised. Possibility Studies therefore serve as a cross-disciplinary framework for understanding how people and societies engage with uncertainty, openness and the not-yet-realised dimensions of life. Although the term is relatively recent, the field builds on longer intellectual traditions concerned with imagination, becoming, human potential and the open-ended nature of social reality. It has gained increasing relevance in response to contemporary challenges such as ecological crisis, technological transformation and political uncertainty, all of which raise fundamental questions about alternative futures and the capacity to shape them.