Tech will save us: The semiotic construction of utopian myth

Abstract

Utopian myth provides hope and social dreaming of a radically different future society, while simultaneously naturalising contemporary social and political order. This study explores the semiotic production and organising role of utopian myth in tech entrepreneurship. Drawing upon Roland Barthes, we apply a multimodal semiotic analysis to examine the promotional videos of TechBBQ, the organisers of the largest tech event in the Nordics. We demonstrate how multiple semiotic modes collectively construct and signify the utopian myth of a tech ecosystem possessing the potential to shape a radically different future and to innovate solutions to the grand challenge of climate change. Based on our findings, we conclude that utopian myth equips organisational fields with semiotic tools to engage with grand challenges and to attain ‘ownership’ of these issues, without any commitment to concrete courses of action. We propose that the organising role of utopian myth is to legitimise organisational fields as agents capable of transforming society, to instil hope, and to justify any means necessary to realise the utopian dream. Our study contributes to the literature on the role of myth and utopianism in organisations by describing and conceptualising the semiotic construction and role of utopian myth in the organisation of fields.