This paper looks at the question of whether the current approaches to social problems and global management are sufficient for the social challenges of our time (unemployment, drug abuse, overpopulation,...). It offers more appropriate personal and institutional responses to these challenges. It suggests a recontextualization with powerful metaphors in order to achieve a greater degree of freedom. Metaphor is defined as a conceptual device which facilitates transfer of meaning from one domain into another. A world governed explicitly through metaphor would offer new possibilities for unity and diversity, and for a new relationship to problems. Metaphor alone is not "the solution". But it creates a bridge between the creative imagination and the great challenges of our time. (Sabine De Knop)