The future belongs to those who speak it: How discourse organizes power in future-making

Lunch Seminar in presence

Building BL26 – Room 0.19 (ground floor)
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Via R. Lambruschini, 4/B

Nico F. Klenner
Australian National University, Australia

Abstract:

Klenner will present the working paper entitled “The future belongs to those who speak it: How discourse organizes power in future-making”, which is the result of a collaboration with Associate Professor Silvia Sanasi (University of Bergamo) and Associate Professor Stefano Magistretti (Politecnico di Milano).

In the paper, the authors theorize how discourse organizes power in future-making. Although future-making scholars recognize the importance of both discourse and power, they have thus far theorized them in parallel. The compartmentalized treatment of discourse and power in future-making limits our ability to explain whose futures are enacted and who is able to participate in future-making.

Adopting a pragmatist perspective, the authors develop a typology of four discursive approaches to future-making: (1) proclamatory discourse, producing power over audiences to enact a necessary future; (2) promissory discourse, producing power through audiences to enact a desirable future; (3) programmatic discourse, producing power to enact a possible future; and (4) participatory discourse, producing power with audiences to enact alternative futures.

The authors unpack the dimensions of the four approaches, i.e., discursive functions, the organization of power, and conditions for effectiveness, and explain how each approach enacts a particular type of future. Understanding these discursive approaches is consequential for the organization of power relations and for the enactment of futures within organizations. Further, the authors discuss implications of this novel theoretical perspective for future-making scholarship and practice, and delineate avenues for future research.

Nico F. Klenner is an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Australian National University (ANU). He serves as Program Convenor for the Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and teaches courses on innovation, design thinking, and research methods at ANU’s Research School of Management. His research examines the intersection of design, entrepreneurship, and innovation, exploring how organizations can shape a better future.