For more than a hundred years we have set out to shape our society as if it was a machine. Capitalism treats us as ‘machines for delivering value’, simply inputs in a vast money-making enterprise. And our government institutions, our corporate organisations and our rules and regulations all reflect a ‘machine mind’.

This mentality has created the unequal, brittle and dangerous world we now live in. But how can we change this? In this paper, Sue Goss argues that as we now try to Build Back Better we need to shift from a ‘machine mind’ to a ‘garden mind’.

‘Garden mind’ changes government from controlling to ‘tending.’ It changes centralised systems to open experimental ways of working. We will create our alternative future through a politics that draws on many sources of resource and power, celebrating diversity, experimenting, testing, sharing learning and building strength through connectedness.