After more than two decades of communications around climate change, battles have been lost and battles have been won. Whilst some political parties and an increasing number of corporations are finally taking action in response to evidence, pressure and regulation there are also significant setbacks as climate change becomes a highly politicised and divisive issue in the public sphere.

In Europe, a growing mood of discontent is rising: with pockets of community resistance to local change; distrust in government led solutions and an increasing backlash against ‘woke capitalism’ from all sides of the political spectrum. (See for example this article: Shifting Political Winds Threaten Progress on Europe’s Green Goals). Much of the information, deliberation and debate needed to build public and private sector support for transformation takes place in the digital information ecosystem, where there is simultaneously an increase in misinformation, disinformation and online political manipulation along with a growing lack of trust in science and public institutions, which means new approaches are needed.

This seminar explores the potential role of communications and interface design in such a complex space. It asks, how can different tactics, techniques and approaches contribute to navigating these challenges? What does it mean to design within such a heavily evolving and contested space? The seminar will be structured with five weeks of input, covering a range of topics, including: ‘Audiences: How to provoke not preach’; ’ Tactics for cutting through states of information disorder’; and ‘To AI or not to AI: the ethics of using artificial intelligence for influence’. Students will then have seven weeks to design their own ‘Influence-by-design’ projects. The course will include guest lectures and collaboration with an environmental NGO.

The seminar is open to all design students but will be particularly useful for communications and interface design students working at or near an MA level. Final projects will be focused on advocating for solutions and countering misinformation. These can take on different forms depending on the students interests and skills, from evidence-based info-graphics to social media campaigns and from interactive provocations to AI augmented communications.

Stephanie Hankey is a designer, activist and social entrepreneur. She is the co-founder of Tactical Tech, the leading international NGO working on public engagement and digital literacy. Stephanie was a Loeb fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, a strategic advisor to the leading global circular economy non-profit, the Ellen Macarthur Foundation and sat on the EU Digitalisation and Sustainability Expert Panel. She is a mentor to projects within the New European Bauhaus Initiative of the EU and the Founding Director of the Climate and Digital Influence Lab opening at Publix, House of Journalism and Society in Berlin, June 2024.