What was the first prefigurative social action inquiry like?
In November 2021, a small group of people gathered at the Haybergill Centre in Cumbria for the first gathering of the Prefigurative Social Action Inquiry, hosted by the Oasis Foundation and Social Action Inquiry Scotland. What unfolded was not a conventional workshop or strategy session – but something deeper, slower, and more transformative.
Over two days, participants explored the foundations of social action not through policy discussions or abstract frameworks, but by engaging with each other as people, with stories to tell, which revealed complex relationships with each other, society and the world around us.
Rather than rushing toward solutions, the group lingered in questioning. The process itself was prefigurative: it modelled the kind of future participants hoped to see – more relational, more human, more alive to complexity and care. By investigating our relationships with the collective past behind us, we began to explore how we might live differently in the present – not just imagining a better future, but practicing it, in the now.
To go deeper, read the following reflective narrative essay by Laurie Spafford, Oasis Foundation’s Narrator of Social Change, capturing the spirit and insights of that gathering.
Listen to the podcast on the process here, and stay tuned to hear more reflections from the subsequent Prefigurative Social Action Inquiry gatherings.
