Utopian Studies

Cinema of the Not-Yet: The Utopian Promise of Film as Heterotopia

by Adrian Ivakhiv

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 5.2 (2011)

Drawing on Ernst Bloch’s writings on utopia, Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, and the ‘affective turn’ in... more Drawing on Ernst Bloch’s writings on utopia, Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, and the ‘affective turn’ in social theory, I argue that cinema is by its nature heterotopic: it creates worlds that are other than the ‘real world’ but that relate to that world in multiple and contradictory ways. The landscapes and people portrayed in film are affectively charged in ways that alter viewers’ relationship to the real objects denoted or signified by them. But it is the larger context of social and cultural movements that mobilizes or fails to mobilize this affective charge to draw out its critical utopian potentials. I examine four films from the 1970s—Deliverance, The Wicker Man, Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, and Stalker—as examples of richly heterotopic films that elicited utopian as well as dystopian affects in their audiences, and I discuss some ways in which American environmentalists, British Pagans, Europe’s ‘generation of ’68’, and Soviet citizens worked with these affects to imagine change in their respective societies.

The Music of Change: Utopian Transformation in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Der Silbersee

by Robert Hunter

in Utopian Studies Vol 21 No. 2, 2010

Urban and Community Lifestyles in Ecotopia as Paradigm for Sustainable and Holistic Well-Being

by Roman Meinhold

(2012) Beijing, China: UIBE

This paper will posit the sustainable urbanization and social community concepts in Ernest Callenbach's Novel... more This paper will posit the sustainable urbanization and social community concepts in Ernest Callenbach's Novel Ecotopia. The ecologically oriented utopia deals with a wide variety of sustainable and holistic issues related to urbanization and community development and illustrates how they could be addressed ideally and practically. Some of those measures have been implemented in a number of countries others are still in high demand or debated by environmentalist, politicians, and economists. The detailed and practical ecological solutions in Ecotopia include, but are not limited to, all possible types of waste management encompassing recycling programs, plant derived biodegradable durable plastics, renewable energy, car and airplane free transportation, a wide variety of public transport opportunities (high and simple tech, such as free public bicycles), organic farming, renaturation, and reforrestation.
In Ecotopia ecologically compatible high-technology exists besides postmaterialistic lifestyles and attitudes of it’s citizens. Environmental paradigms include: intergenerational justice, sustainability, steady-state economy, prices of goods that reflect the real costs (speak the ‘ecological truth’), anti-consumerism, slowly declining population, and strict environmental laws. The ecocentric worldview gives preference to the quality of life not to the economic paradigm of growth.
This paper will examine which of Ecotopia's measurements in urbanization and community development are still desired for future sustainable and holistic development, especially in the light of the fast growing major cities in Asia. For the purpose of giving a normative orientation for holistic-sustainable development an index of holistic well-being, comprised of 10 sub-indices, will be proposed.

Space Jesuits and Galactic theocracy: Identifying four forms of dystopic Catholicism in Science Fiction

by Jim Clarke

A seminar presented at Saor Ollscoil na hEireann, 16th May 2012.

Storm and the X-Men as Racial Projects

by Deseure DeBerry

Used for MS Applied Project at ASU. Short version of abstract: An applied project that applies Sumi Cho's (2009) concept of 'post-racialism' to the X-Men as a group and why 'post-racialism' is problematic through the representations of Storm in four graphic novels.
link to prezi: http://prezi.com/ryb-smee0qy1/present/?auth_key=eq9qi5v&follow=wbwbkkve2x7v

From the introduction of an international cast in 1975 onward, the X-Men have been a transformative and diverse... more From the introduction of an international cast in 1975 onward, the X-Men have been a transformative and diverse society of mutants. This group of unique superheroes front a human/mutant struggle that brought the readers to imagine a new oppression affecting white mutants alongside mutants of different races, ethnicities and national origins. Acceptance in to humanity and mutant rights were championed by Charles Xavier and, through the X-Men lead by Cyclops, mutants have been saving humanity in the midst of their struggle against hatred.

Storm has been through these struggles as an X-Man and mutant, but what about her identity as a black woman and struggles had by black women in white and male dominated spaces? This project is aimed at answering inquiries about Storm’s representation in struggles for liberation, and the possibility that the X-Men are an example of a post-racial society, with Storm being a willing participant. This has implications of black women’s issues and oppressions being largely ignored, and of the continued un-freedoms of racial minorities in the US, as mutant liberation and acceptance have trumped that of other race-based intersectional social justice issues.

Book Review: Saul Newman - The Politics of Postanarchism

by Michael Larson

Published in Radical Philosophy Review 14.1 (2011)
pages 105-109

Exopedagogies and the Utopian Imagination: A Case Study in Faery Subcultures

by Richard Kahn

Co-authored with Tyson Lewis, Montclair State University (In Theory & Event), 2009

DERECHO, UTOPISMO Y VALORES EN LA CONSTITUCIÓN “CIUDADANA” BRASILEÑA

by Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

in "Revista Europea de Historia de las Ideas Politicas y de las Instituciones Publicas", n.º 2 (2012), pp. 99-137.

In an interdisciplinary exercise, this article seeks to capture some essential aspects of the Constitution of Brazil.... more In an interdisciplinary exercise, this article seeks to capture some essential aspects of the Constitution of Brazil.
It recalls some fundamental concepts in the semantic fields of utopia and values, in order to make the necessary reading guidelines of this analysis.
We emphasize the constitution main goals, which we consider linked to the Principle of Hope, or utopianism.
And in connection with it, we detect the importance of political and juridical values of this Constitution. It is explicitly evaluative, and creats a new balance between values that are often pointed out as antagonistic.
In addition, the Brazilian Constitution is compared here with one of its recognized sources, the Portuguese Constitution of 1976, concluding that both fit into the modern constitutionalism, the Western concept of constitution, and political liberal and social paradigms.

Dwelling in the Reality of Utopian Thought

by Ghassan Hage

Appeared in Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, No. 1, Vol. 23, pp.7-12, 2011.

Throughout the history of modern western thought the concept of ‘utopia’ has come to denote a detachment from, or lack... more Throughout the history of modern western thought the concept of ‘utopia’ has come to denote a detachment from, or lack of connection to, reality. To speak of utopias is to speak of ontologically non-existent spaces, non-realities. Indeed, the more seriously utopian one is the more in need of a ‘reality check’ they are considered to be. The main ontological assumption lying behind this conception of utopia is what I will refer to as mono-realism: the idea that there is one and only one reality that our thought is or can be connected to. A relatively recent school of thought, building on a long anthropological tradition that questions the core ontological assumptions of modernity, has shown mono-realism to be one among those core assumptions. From it emerges the possibility that what we call ‘reality’ is merely a dominant reality, and that there are always minor realities in which we are equally enmeshed. A further consequence of this is that thought, utopian thought included, even when not speaking to the dominant reality, is still emanating from and speaking to a reality; that utopia rather than being a space inspired by an idealised past that has disappeared or by a future-oriented imagining of that has no existence is metonymic of minor and repressed spaces in which we already dwell in the present.

CIEN AÑOS DE SOLEDAD AND THE UNIVERSAL COMMENTARY; Considerations on the narrative voice through the lens of Utopia and Dystopia

by Andrea Woodard

Proposed abstract for presentation at the Duke University Romance Studies Graduate Students Conference 2011

Constituição, Utopia e Utopismo - O Exemplo da Constituição Cidadã Brasileira

by Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

in "Revista Jurídica Cesumar – Mestrado",  vol. 9, n.º 1, 2009, pp. 35-55.

Sumário: A Questão Conceitual. 1.1 Constituintes, Mito e Utopia; 2 O Género Literário Constituição; 3 Utopia e... more Sumário: A Questão Conceitual. 1.1 Constituintes, Mito e Utopia; 2 O Género Literário Constituição; 3 Utopia e Constituição; 4 Categorias; 4.1 Os grandes paradigmas ou épocas (tempos) do Direito; 4.2 As grandes formas de pensamento crítico; 5 O Lugar e o Papel da Constituição; 6 Utopia e Utopismo na Constituição Cidadã brasileira; 6.1 Os Valores e o Preâmbulo; 6.2 Alguns traços de utopismo constitucional; 7 O Paradigma da Cláusula Geral e o Paradigma Detalhista; 8 Conclusão. De novo os Conceitos e as Coisas: utopia e utopismo; Referências.

“Transforming Plato: Tommaso Campanella’s La città del sole, the Republic, and Socrates as Natural Philosopher”

by Michael Subialka

Bruniana & Campanelliana, XVII, 2 (2011); pp. 73-89.

Revisiting La città del sole in light of recent scholarship on Campanella’s naturalism and with recourse to key works... more Revisiting La città del sole in light of recent scholarship on Campanella’s naturalism and with recourse to key works of his philosophy, I examine how his utopia systematically re-writes Plato’s ideal city from the Republic by simultaneously drawing on and naturalizing a set of key Platonic figures. This transformation serves as an implicit response to criticisms of the utopian project made by Aristotle and Machiavelli; it is also a means of taking distance from the hermetic impulse at work in much of Renaissance Neoplatonism. The City of the Sun can thus be seen as replicating Kallipolis’ rigid order and its connection to absolute truth but simultaneously grounding that order in an empirical naturalism that allows the ideal society to become open.

The Andy Griffith Show: Mayberry as Working Class Utopia

by Derek Alderman

Alderman, Derek H., Terri Moreau, and Stefanie Benjamin. 2012. “The Andy Griffith Show: Mayberry as Working Class Utopia.” Blue-Collar Pop Culture: From NASCAR to Jersey Shore, (Vol. 2) Television and the Culture of Everyday Life, Praeger (edited by M. Keith Booker), pp. 51-69.

Western utopianism/dystopianism and the political mediocrity of critical urban research

by Guy Baeten

This paper seeks to summarise the interplay between utopian and dystopian thinking throughout the twentieth century... more This paper seeks to summarise the interplay between utopian and dystopian thinking throughout the twentieth century with a particular focus on the city. The gradually shrinking appeal of the socialist utopia and its replacement with the globalised free–market as a ‘revanchist utopia’ left socialist utopian thinking in a state of disarray towards the end of the previous century. Utopian thinking, both as a literary and political genre has been rendered marginal in contemporary political practices. Urban dystopia, or ‘Stadtschmerz’, is now prevalent in critical Western thinking about city and society. It is concluded that the declining political impact of critical urban research is caused partly by its lack of engagement with crafting imaginative alternative futures for the city. The works by Sennett, Sandercock and the Situationists, among others, may contain elements to reverse the current utopian malaise in urban research.

Spaces of Utopia and Dystopia: Introduction

by Guy Baeten

Saggio come un cavallo: utopia e antiutopia nel viaggio di Gulliver fra i cavalli parlanti

by Raffaele Russo

Nel quarto e ultimo libro dei Gulliver’s Travels, 'A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms', Gulliver approda ad... more Nel quarto e ultimo libro dei Gulliver’s Travels, 'A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms', Gulliver approda ad un’isola abitata da cavalli parlanti, gli Houyhnhnm, i quali sembrano essere possessori di una semplice e affascinante razionalità, tanto che hanno costituito una comunità perfetta, guidata dalla sola ragione. Essi vivono una vita senza colpa e senza peccato, turbata soltanto dalla presenza di un'altra razza sulla loro isola, gli umanoidi Yahoo, grossolani e selvaggi, sottomessi agli Houyhnhnm. Quando Gulliver arriva sull’isola, impara rapidamente ad amare i saggi cavalli parlanti, e a disprezzare i grossolani Yahoo, con i quali però sia gli Houyhnhnm che gli stessi Yahoo finiscono con l’identificarlo. Da allora in poi il suo più grande desiderio è quello di imitare il meglio possibile gli Houyhnhnm e vivere in loro compagnia, disprezzando non solo gli Yahoo che ha conosciuto sull’isola, ma anche tutti gli Yahoo dell’Europa da cui Gulliver stesso proviene, verso la quale non ha più intenzione di far ritorno. Egli ripete, per la quarta volta nel corso dell’intero libro, la descrizione della civiltà da cui proviene agli esterrefatti abitanti dell’isola dei cavalli, suscitando l’orrore e l’indignazione di queste creature puramente razionali, come gli era accaduto già altre volte, nel corso dei suoi viaggi.
Ciò che però è nuovo nella situazione in cui si trova Gulliver è la profonda fascinazione che la vita degli Houyhnhnm esercita su di lui. L’isola degli Houyhnhnm ha molto in comune con la tradizione delle isole utopiche, in particolare è legata ad  Utopia, l’isola felice immaginata da Thomas More. Anche l’isola degli Houyhnhnm è lontana e priva di contatti col resto del mondo. I suoi magnifici cavalli parlanti sono pacifici e privi di vizi, cosa che rende perfetta la loro salute: come i loro predecessori nella tradizione utopica, gli Houyhnhnm non conoscono malattie, se non quelle dei loro Yahoo. Le loro istituzioni sono sagge e benevole, con un certa inclinazione verso le pratiche eugenetiche e quelle del controllo demografico, che sono una costante delle utopie moderne. Anche gli Houyhnhnm tengono moltissimo alla purezza della loro comunità, e sono diffidenti nei confronti degli stranieri.
Il problema interpretativo principale di questo ambiguo e disturbante quarto viaggio di Gulliver è senz’altro rappresentato dall’identificazione degli Houyhnhnm, e dalla valutazione del loro modo di vita. A chi o cosa corrispondono gli Houyhnhnm nella nostra cultura, che Swift ha costantemente presente in tutto il libro? Nella letteratura critica contemporanea prevale l’identificazione degli Houyhnhnm con i deisti, ovvero col progetto pre-illuministico di una vita umana guidata solo dalla ragione. E la decisione sulla praticabilità e desiderabilità di un tipo di vita del genere è appunto il punto interpretativo critico di questa parte del libro di Swift.
In ogni caso, l’arrivo di Gulliver sull’isola turba l’equilibrio che esisteva da tempo immemorabile in quel luogo, gli Houyhnhnm sono sempre più a disagio nei confronti dei loro Yahoo, si accorgono che forse non è impossibile insegnare loro i rudimenti della ragione, e ma che se lo si facesse sarebbero senz’altro capaci di pervertirla, portando disordine e rovina sulla equilibrata comunità degli Houyhnhnm. Decidono quindi di sterminarli, e prima di porre in atto questo piano costringono Gulliver all’esilio. La cacciata di Gulliver dall’isola dei cavalli  segna la bancarotta del sogno umanistico e rinascimentale di una comunità guidata interamente dalla ragione: Swift ci dice che forse è possibile costruirla, ma non per gli uomini, in cui rimane sempre un fondo oscuro inaccessibile alla ragione. Molti mali degli uomini vengono senz’altro dalla mancanza di ragione: e le pagine satiriche di questo quarto libro, dedicate agli eccessi del lusso, alle assurdità del sistema legale inglese, alle ingiustizie del sistema politico, non vanno certo considerate come frutto della “pazzia” dello stesso Gulliver. Ma Swift sembra intuire qui che la ragione da sola non è una guida efficace della condotta umana, e il ricorso ad essa nella sua assolutezza può condurre ad una società totalitaria e disumana, come in ultima analisi risulta quella degli Houyhnhnm. Un rimedio peggiore del male, a ben vedere.

ON SOME UTOPIAN MOTIVES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF WALTER BENJAMIN

by Mariya Ivancheva

Rhyming Hope and History in the'Fifth Province

by Aidan O'Malley

Published in: Michael J. Griffin and Tom Moylan (eds), 'Exploring the Utopian Impulse: Essays on Utopian Thought and Practice', Oxford/Bern/New York, Peter Lang, 2007, pp. 293-311

Utopian Architectures and the dictatorship of the imaginary

by Salvatore Iaconesi

presented at the Always Already New conference in Milan ( http://www.m-node.org/mnode_alwaysalreadynew_abstracts.html ) together with Stefano Bonifazi

The paper describes a multi-author research path emerged in-between the general discussion taking place on the AHA... more The paper describes a multi-author research path emerged in-between the general discussion taking place on the AHA mailing-list, and later formally detailed. The focal node of the dialogue is an "architectural" vision of the strategies of conflict and critique. Analisys is multidirectional and multidisciplinary. Starting from the idea of the clash among languages and codes that is embodied in education practices and in the strategies for production and dissemination of imaginaries, it continues by describing the cultural and education strategies that contribute in defining the "design" (and the role of the "designer") as a tool for authority, operating between linited visions, utopias and desire. The discussion, sythesized and formalized in the text, ends by suggesting possible scenarios for the education practices that better seem to embody the more effective reaction and critique models, also describing nomadic and recombinant scenarios narrated under the form of an evolution of the "conference". The work is "open/emergent", and it will be implemented as a multiple-voice digital platform right after the conference, using an innovative visualization system creating a parallel between the visions of architectural design and information architectural design. The platform will be used during the presentation, and it will be released with a GPL2 license.

Analysing Hope

by Nicholas H Smith

pre-proof-read version. Published in Critical Horizons, vol. 9, no. 1, May 2008, 5-23.

The paper contrasts two approaches to the analysis of hope: one that takes its departure from a view broadly shared by... more The paper contrasts two approaches to the analysis of hope: one that takes its departure from a view broadly shared by Hobbes, Locke and Hume, another that fits better with Aquinas’s definition of hope. The former relies heavily on a sharp distinction between the cognitive and conative aspects of hope. It is argued that while this approach provides a valuable source of insights, its focus is too narrow and it rests on a problematic rationalistic psychology. The argument is supported by a discussion of hope understood as a stance and by a consideration of the phenomenological contrast between expectation and anticipation.The paper concludes with some reflections on the relation between hope and illusion and the idea of responsible hope.