The Lab of Possible Futures
Through the Lab of Possible Futures, Jess designs and facilitates research collaborations to further co-creative knowledge and tool development of the microeconomics of post-capitalisms. Over time, the Lab will offer concrete tools and resources for individuals, small businesses, and organizations.
Research Collaborations
Current - Beloved Economies (2015 - 2022)
A six-year research initiative exploring how transforming the way we work can transform the economies in which we live. With more than 50 collaborators, Beloved Economies offers 7 practices for organizations and businesses to expand their economic imagination of what’s possible through everyday changes. The research culminates in an 18-month campaign called the Beloved Economies Project, disseminating hopeful stories, practical findings, and accessible tools for organizations and groups.
Upcoming - Next Systems Practice
Today’s intellectual paradigms of free-market orthodoxy (known as “neoliberalism”) and modern business culture (known as “late capitalism”) are failing to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. The pandemic has further laid bare the deep fault lines and failures of the dominant paradigm. Business and organizational leaders across generations know that we cannot return to business-as-usual. As organizations and businesses attempt to return to a new "normal," we predict they will be looking for new practices and resources that are more aligned with local resiliency, respectful of planetary means, and put people first by dismantling oppressions. Circumstances are ripe for the emergence of a new intellectual paradigm—a different and transformational way to think about design and behavioral choices on the part of groups and teams. We make the path by walking it. Therefore, it is critical that a body of research, tools, and prototypes are developed to inspire organizations, businesses, and groups to practically step into post-capitalist futures. The Next Systems Practice research will be in co-learning conversation with business and organizational leaders as they approach reconstruction, while undertaking pressing research needed to support next-generation enterprises.