Using Ecotopian Fiction to Reimagine Public Policy: From a Resource-Based Narrative to a Competing Values Narrative

Abstract

Ecotopian fiction contains visions of a negative, dystopian future that connects with a range of environmental issues. For example, Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy examines human environmental manipulation and worldwide disaster, and Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke’s Agenda 21 is based on extreme implementation of the United Nations global sustainability policy Agenda 21. Utopian and dystopian fiction often reflects fears about the future, fears held in both the left-of-center and right-of-center political camps. This article explores the literary genre of ecotopian fiction and how it can reflect on public policy. It determines that fictional ecotopias, when combined with concepts derived from Berlin and Miller, can help policymakers redefine their understanding of public policy away from a resource-based grand narrative to one that reflects the evolving and competing values of past and present society.