The Power of Elpis

Description

“THE POWER OF ELPIS”: ABSTRACT FOR THE 5th OXFORD FUTURES FORUM, June 2-3, 2017, Michael Koenig, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Strategy and Innovation, Austria When in ancient Greek mythology Pandora opened her box to release the plagues, there was one little creature that remained: elpis. It stands for hope and is “capable of absorbing what we anticipate and to metamorphose into what we wish it to be.” (Novotny 2016, 171)*. Elpis is presumably one of the first foresighters, and it is much more: it is a positive driver of scenarios and a powerful source of sense-making. Climate imaginaries are often portraying the catastrophic and detrimental effects of climate change. However, people are overloaded with (post-) apocalyptical narratives and increasingly become resistant to those negative dilemma images. It is difficult to impress and to motivate, and to create purposeful scenarios, when the image is dark. They just don’t work anymore, particularly in “post-factual” times, where truth seems to be a strange notion. In my drawing, I aim to show elpis as optimistic and affirmative force that enables us to think climate change differently. From within Pandora’s box, it radiates in green, and in the darkest areas fosters insightful scenarios by instilling hope and expedient framing. I drew the image in the notebook we received at the Oxford Scenarios Programme. This notebook is still with me all the time. There is certainly hope that the future will bring further answers to the fundamental issues of climate change. Let us marry climate imaginaries and scenario technique in order to deeply reflect and metamorphose elpis into what we wish it to be: a better and positive world. * Novotny, H. The Cunning of Uncertainty. Cambridge/Malden: Polity Press; 2016. 2 attachements: ELPIS_PANDORA_with text_OX2017FUTURES_MichaelKoenig.pdf ELPIS_PANDORA_OX2017FUTURES_MichaelKoenig.pdf

Period	2 Jun 2017 → 3 Jun 2017
Event title	Oxford Futures Forum 2017
Event type	Unknown
Degree of Recognition	International