To imagine the end of capitalism – commons utopias now

Abstract

ABSTRACT Utopian texts function not only as representations of alternatives to the manifold crises of the present, but educate their readers in the ways such alternative futures might become concrete utopian presents through radical political activity. Utopian critical theory in the last two decades has suggested that this educational and transformational role of utopian literature is on the wane at a time when the power of late capitalism seems all-encompassing. In response, this essay offers a new periodisation of utopian literature from the 1990s to the present, suggesting that the critical utopias of the 1970s and critical dystopias of the 1990s have, in the last decade, inspired a new tendency in utopian literature: commons utopias. These texts are assiduously of the present moment, refusing to escape from a precarious ongoing present, but engaging prefiguratively with utopian imaginaries to bring them into being today – particularly the radically anti-capitalist idea of the commons. By depicting realistic utopian spaces in opposition to capitalism, commons utopias educate and inspire their readers to transform their own present.