Entrepreneurs are expert storytellers. Their visions of the future are shaping the laws that politicians pass, the funding they make available and the rules they design to govern emerging technologies.

We think that it’s time that policymakers were offered a broader range of potential futures to aspire to.

Over the next few months, we will be publishing Common Futures, a series of essays about the future of work, by those who are working on the front-line of technological change, from factory workers to food delivery couriers.

Following this, we’ll organise a conference towards the end of 2018, to bring together policymakers and politicians to hear directly from workers. Along the way, we’ll experiment with a variety of methods to help workers tell their stories, from storytelling sessions to theatre workshops.

This is part of Nesta’s work on inclusive innovation policy. Nesta believes innovation policy should be more inclusive. We want to see innovation policy that aims to get more people involved in innovation; that directs innovation capacity and resources towards big social challenges; and that tries to ensure that the benefits of innovation are spread more equitably. We think that in order to shift goals of innovation policy in this way, a wider range of people need to take part in innovation policymaking.