Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The world spends vast sums on the frontiers of technology but much less to explore how our societies could be fairer, safer and more prosperous. At a time when the public badly want better public services, trustworthy politics and a healthy biosphere, the social sciences have prioritized analysis and critique over design. Ours is a golden age of diagnosis but a dark age of prescription, which contributes to a widening gap between extraordinary technological dynamism and social stagnation. This book shows how the social sciences can return to their best traditions and help to define pathways and options for the future, focusing on how to change the world and not just to on how interpret it. It shows the many resources to draw from, including the study of systems and complexity as well as methods from design, the arts, history and the use of models. These can be woven together into programmes of exploration that map out possible options for the next few decades: how to reinvent care for an ageing population, how to use time in novel ways or how to reinvent democracy. Most social scientists want to use their knowledge to serve their societies. But in recent years they have been discouraged from work of design. Healthy trends towards more use of data have had the unfortunate side-effect of squeezing out creative imagination and many younger social scientists think it career-threatening to move from analysis to prescription. This book shows how to harness their intellects and energy for the greater good.</jats:p>