Inner drives: Is the future of marketing communications more sustainable when using backcasting?

Abstract

In 2018 a marketing communications firm decided to do a participatory backcasting project involving all their local members of staff to see what the future might bring in marketing communications. The exercise led to a unique knowledge accumulation process that has substantial research relevance. Unintentionally, this backcasting revolved around the role of marketing communications in transforming business to an ecologically sustainable and socially just modus operandi. While presenting the results of this action research, on the one hand this paper aims to provide inputs to reorienting marketing communications from its undignified status in sustainability efforts to something that supports sustainability transitions in society. On the other hand, it aims to contribute to the methodological discourses on backcasting. While it has been long established that backcasting is an adequate tool to address sustainability issues, this project suggests that participatory backcasting as a methodological framework has its own inner drives that lead to responsible and sustainable mind-sets even without such framings. These inner drives may have to do with the nature of utopian thinking, and the psychological safety and intellectual independence it provides.

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