Our Theory of Change
About our Theory of Change
At Opus, we believe that tweaks and improvements to existing systems will not work. This is because existing systems are often part of the problem, are fundamentally flawed or are themselves at real risk of collapse.
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We need to build new systems that address poverty, hunger, marginalisation, the democratic deficit and ecosystem collapse.
This needs to be done at a speed and scale that matches the severity of the various crises we are facing – what we call the polycrisis.
Instead of radical reforms to fundamentally flawed systems, our work focuses on emerging futures – new systems based on equity, justice and staying within our planetary boundaries. We think big because we have no other option.
The problems that we want to address stem from complex systems: the economy, the environment, our food system and so on. That’s why we use systems and complexity thinking as the basis for our work. We try to find the leverage points that will unlock rapid and full-scale systemic change to a more equitable and sustainable world. We do this by bringing people together and telling new stories that start to unpick these complex systems.
But we want to go further than just imagining. We’re in the business of building real proofs of possibility that demonstrate what emerging future systems could look like in practice.
Working in this way opens the door to transformative, exciting ideas. How would border abolition work? What if we recognise nature’s right to thrive? What would a 21st century version of energy commoning look like? These are the kind of questions we ask every day through our work.