Presentation from a workshop at Futures Conference 2019

1. Utopias to combat
futures-by-negation
13.6.2019
Mikko Dufva, Hannu-Pekka Ikäheimo, Jenna Lähdemäki-Pekkinen & Pinja Parkkonen
The Innovation Fund Sitra, Finland
future would be nice

2. The futures we imagine matter

3. Futures cone: How we are used to thinking about futures
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/dont-stop-thinking-about-tomorrow-modest-defence-futurology

4. Postnormal times
“We are entering an era where complexity, chaos and
contradictions will become the dominant themes; and uncertainty
and ignorance will increase drastically”
Sardar, Z., 2015. Postnormal times revisited. Futures, 67, 26–39.
Sardar, Z., 2010. Welcome to postnormal times. Futures, 42(5), 435–444.

5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001632871500138X
Need to broaden the cone

6. What do we see
as possible,
plausible or
probable?
Need to re-orient
the futures cone
https://twitter.com/futuryst/status/1101168715184394241

7. ”Ruined” by DJ Ibusal
Future - ruined, nostalgia - ruined, present - ruined,
Left with nothing but bullshit
Youth - ruined, old people - ruined, demography - ruined
Left with nothing but bullshit
Politics – ruined, economy – ruined, welfare – ruined
Left with nothing but bullshit
USA - ruined, Europe - ruined, World - ruined,
Left with nothing but bullshit

8. Revived interest in utopias
Instead of vivid utopias nostalgia is on the rise
in Europe
– two thirds of Europeans believe that the world used to be
a better place (Bertelsmann Stiftung)
– a loss of faith in society’s perfectibility (Bauman: retropia)
– a grand narrative of progress is missing
Utopias are important for political
imagination
– many things taken for granted today are yesterday’s
utopias
– If we can’t imagine a better future, how do we expect to
build one
– utopian thinking can be an important and powerful form
of social critique (broadens the scope of desirable futures)

9. “When man's utopian aspirations to
develop his own humanity die out, then
man himself dies.”
Fred Polak

10. WE NEED NEW UTOPIAS AND
THE BROADENING OF FUTURES
dream finer dreams

11. Utopia?
Outopos:
a place that doesn’t exist
Eu-topos:
a place of happiness

12. Utopia as a method.
The task of utopia consists
of holding up two mirrors:
one to reflect the
contemporary generation,
and one to reflect a
counter-image of a possible
future.
- Fred Polak

13. Hypothesis on building futures
Utopias
Experiential
foresight
Societal
change-making
Preferable futures…
…experienced in the present
creates hope…
…which drives systemic change
+
+

14. “Man has the capacity to
dream finer dreams
than he has ever succeeded in dreaming”
Fred Polak

15. Exercise:
Three
scenes
of utopia

16. After the exercise
… You have pictured one utopia
… You have experienced making
decisions in utopia
… You have thought about life in
a utopia from the everyday
perspective

17. NEXT UP: UTOPIA
Close your eyes and enjoy the ride

18. Scene 1: Picturing one utopia
Draw your utopia together
Think about relation to nature
Think about infrastructure
What will your utopia look like?

19. Scene 2: Making decisions
Everyone wants to live in your utopia!
Plan a new community together.
- Draw a role card* and read it. Do not
show it to others.
- Through your roles, discuss what the
new community will be like
- Reflect on what happened and how
decisions could be made in your utopia
*Based on Sarkar-game

20. Scene 3: Grandmother
Choose who will play the role of grandmother in
need of assistance
Play out what life in utopia is like for
grandmother
Where does she live?
What are her hobbies?
What about eating?

21. REFLECTION
What happened?
How do you feel?

22. REFLECTION: MAKING UTOPIAS
Can making utopias be taught? How? What is needed?
Are utopias elitist?
Are we losing the ability to create utopias?
What utopias are there?
What benefits could imagining utopias bring?

23. REFLECTION: NEXT STEPS
What is needed now?
What to read?
What to check out?
Who to talk to?

24. sitra.fi/megatrends | nextera.global
@sitrafund