Apocalyptic and Utopian Motivation for Change in Society

Abstract

Actions executed in the name of sustainable development by corporations capable of changing society in a fundamental way often have similar goals, but sometimes conflicting motivations. This is often reflected in the language they use to justify change. The sometimes apocalyptic motivation for change stems from sources capable of changing society’s mindset, such as contemporary media. Some organisations working on fundamental societal change, such as the United Nations, will express their justifications using language supportive of a utopian goal. An action that is taken with the motive of creating a utopia can look quite different from an action that is executed to avoid an apocalypse. There seems to be a need for reflection in design education on big change and motivation, as this paper will discuss. Therefore, the research question is: Can design thinking be used to create motivation for sustainable development to aid global actors reach their expected or improved outcomes? Although this paper has a traditional structure, it’s goal is to promote discussion rather than promoting new insight and answers in this specific field. The findings are derived from two case studies of the Norwegian climate lawsuit and Equinor’s justification for its carbon capture and storage project.