Recognizing and Overcoming the Myths of Modernity
Renata M. Leitão · Proceedings of DRS · 2018
This paper aims to contribute to the debate around the cultural dimension of the transitions by shedding a light on myths at the core of the modern civilizational project. The term myths is used to talk about stories that embody the values of the modern project, which became a certainty in people’s minds. Transitioning to a sustainable civilization entails that we create and adopt new storylines. In order to do so, designers must be story-listeners and recognize the myths that are hindering the transformation of our ways of life. The modern world is, arguably, a world with only one storyline that separates the world in two (e.g., developed and developing). I argue that designing new societal projects demands the collaboration between multiple cultures. In the modern world, however, we do not have an epistemology that enables such collaborations. Therefore, several myths of modernity need to be recognized and dispelled to allow for new epistemologies to emerge, so that we can purposefully create new stories for a new civilization.