PHILADELPHIA — Design isn’t what it used to be in the museum world. Just a few years back, exhibitions about the future were typically filled with bright and shiny objects, presented as new ideas to make life better. The unspoken theme pervading those shows was consumerism — a tacit endorsement of shopping and acquiring.

Today, museum curators are promoting the view that conspicuous consumption is bad for the planet, that luxury items exclude those who can’t afford them, and that designers need to acknowledge differently shaped and differently abled bodies. Current shows are meant to provoke conversation, not admiration.

Tables and chairs that once delighted viewers with their technical virtuosity and sleek good looks “are about the past,” said Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. “As representatives of life, objects are not the way to go.”

Ms. Antonelli’s show, “Broken Nature,” a major statement about climate change and the disasters that await humanity, starred at the Milan Triennale last spring. It offered not a single object chosen for its visual power, but rather for the possibilities they represented. New Yorkers will have a chance to see a portion of the exhibition at MoMA in June. Cooper Hewitt’s recent Triennial, “Nature,” followed a similar path, also focusing more on science and technology than beauty.