Conceptualising global cultural transformation – Developing deep institutional scenarios for whole of society change

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the current efforts to improve methodologies to find more ambitious and integrated strategies to jointly pursue the Paris climate target and other SDGs (van Vuuren et al. 2015, Hughes et al. 2021). It suggests a means of further expanding the underlying societal perspectives in scenarios modelling through a model of Deep Institutional Innovation for Sustainability and Human Development (DIIS) (Hughes et al. 2019), which aims to reframe the narrative from sociotechnical transition to deep global cultural transformation. The paper posits the need for capturing irreversible transformation change (Barbrook-Johnson et al., 2024) through a fundamental reimagining of the key social institutions that together comprise contemporary societies. To illustrate the application of the DIIS framing to pathway scenarios an indicative scenario is offered to indicate the radical global cultural changes required to move to pathways capable of bringing about greater sustainability and human flourishing.