Models of (future) society: Bringing social theories back in backcasting

•We conducted a backcasting project on sustainable employment in Hungary.•Four main social theories are presented in relation to society and social change.•The topic, the method, the naive theories and the context mutually shape each other.•Involving social theories in backcasting projects leads to more fruitful processes.

Thinking about the future always involves thinking about the future of society. In backcasting projects there is always an underlying theory of how society operates now and will operate in the future. However, so far little attention has been paid to reveal how different ideas on society are at work, and consequently how this can be considered as an input in the process of backcasting. The paper reports on a backcasting project on sustainable employment policy and demonstrates the underlying theories on society and on social change that operated and influenced the project all along, from the phase of preparation through the process till the output phase. Lessons for a more reflective design and application of the backcasting approach are proposed.