Real Utopias Research Articles

A reply to my critics

ABSTRACT My five critics all raise important points, giving reasons for viewing my account as either insufficiently or overly realist or utopian. By and large, I stick to my guns in regarding my version of a realistic Utopia of a republican association of states as the most plausible way of achieving a non-dominating global order capable of meeting the moral and functional challenges to state sovereignty posed by cosmopolitanism and globalisation respectively.

Envisioning a Utopian Ecosocialism in the Darkness of the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Socialism is one of the great visions of a society in the modern era. Born in the aftermath of the French Revolution and the early days of industrialization, socialism is about achieving freedom and equality in real, practical terms. This article revisits three currents of socialist thought: utopian, Marxian and eco-socialist. Through a reading of these bodies of thought, this article will address the great challenge of our own time – the time of Covid-19 pandemic, a deadly virus that has wreaked havoc across state borders and continents. To envision a remedy to the current socio-historical situation, this article argues for a convergence between Marxian socialism and ecosocialism. Given the current darkness of the Covid-19 pandemic, what is needed is bold and imaginative thinking. To calibrate socialism as a solution to the pandemic-ravaged world, I argue that ecosocialism ought to embrace the utopianism of earlier socialist thought. Ecosocialist demands constitute a real utopia – a radical but possible transformation. Its seeming contradiction between idealism and attainability is the generative tension inherent in concrete utopias. The impact of such a transformation would be a re-integration of the economy into the ecological and the social world.

Republican intergovernmentalism as a realistic utopia

ABSTRACT Richard Bellamy’s A Republican Europe of States offers a major contribution to the debate on the future of Europe by exending important democratic concerns beyond state borders without conflating into an overly demanding cosmopolitan account. Key to Bellamy’s normative proposal are the two ideas of realistic utopia and ‘freedom as non-domination’. Inspired by Rawls’s political philosophy, the idea of realistic utopia helps to understand the proper relationships between facts and principles and ideal and non-ideal theory. Petitt’s idea of ‘freedom as-non domination’, in turn, provides the foundation for the ideal of democratic legitimacy presented in the book. This paper critically examines Bellamy’s republican intergovernmentalism in light of these two features. It ultimately seeks to show that these two ideas are in tension with one each other and seem to lead to two contrasting models of normative political theorizing.

Transforming a praetorian polity: the political economy of democratization in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the hegemonic role of the military vis-à-vis elected civilian governments in Pakistan from the vantage point of institutional political economy. Absence of “good governance” on the part of elected civilian governments is often depicted as the key underlying factor that allows the military to maintain its dominance over state and society. In sharp contrast, we argue that the emphasis on “good” governance as a pathway to democratic consolidation ignores socio-economic and institutional factors which facilitate the successful reproduction of Pakistan’s militarized hegemonic order. The paper argues that the military hegemony is rooted in the prevailing political economic structure mediated by forces of imperialism. By drawing from Erik Olin Wright’s (2010. Envisioning Real Utopias) tripartite conceptual scheme of “symbiotic,” “interstitial,” and “ruptural” transformation strategies, we offer a new framework to analyze processes of democratic transformation in Pakistan. We contend that the consolidation of democracy and civilian supremacy mandates a shift away from a narrow focus on governance to transformative politics. The latter has to be centered around an alternative hegemonic conception counterposed to the established military-centric order that would incorporate aspirations of socio-spatially and economically deprived segments from the ethnic peripheries, as well as progressive and working-class constituencies within metropolitan Pakistan.

Eutopia and engagement today

The contemporary conceptions of universal basic income (by Guy Standing), tax havens extraction (by Gabriel Zucman), and climate emergency (by Christiana Figueres) are briefly presented in the form of exposition in Massive Attack?s Eutopia EP. These conceptions address the most concerning issues of today?s world, while the concept of eutopia, proposed by Massive Attack?s Robert Del Naja and Mark Donne, represents ?a place of well-being, as a practical aspiration,? a realistic utopia in which those issues are resolved. The present paper discusses the conceptions presented in Eutopia, assessing the possibility of the materialisation of eutopia. As suggested by Massive Attack, the ideas of Eutopia can be traced back to More?s Utopia, being rooted in a humanistic endeavour of improving humanity, inspiring engagement and search for a better and just society. Apart from discussing Eutopia, the paper explores Another Now, the political science-fiction novel by Yanis Varoufakis. Varoufakis? critique of capitalism and the alternative he proposes in the novel Another Now argue along the same line as Eutopia, encouraging engagement in today?s world.

A Real Utopia Under What Conditions? The Economic and Social Benefits of Workplace Democracy in Knowledge-Intensive Industries

A Real Utopia Under What Conditions? The Economic and Social Benefits of Workplace Democracy in Knowledge-Intensive Industries

Ernesto Rossi, economista di Giustizia e Libertà

Ernesto Rossi’s realistic utopia is based on his belief that a reformed capitalism could bring socially acceptable levels of both justice and freedom. According to Rossi, history shows that capitalism is socio-political flexible. From Wicksteed, Rossi derives that the market, even if of perfect competition, that does not discriminate individual desires according to their moral canons and whose results depend on the initial distribution of resources; it is not able to direct free individual choices towards acceptable levels of social justice. Uncertainty and the dynamic nature of capitalism produce “predatory” forms of competition, while, by means of bequests, property rights generate inefficiency and heighten the initial disparity in life. Rossi’s proposals in favour of an active presence of the state in the economy and for the adoption of structural reforms, not just in the economic sphere. JEL codes: B31, D4, D6, H5

The challenges of futures literacy

The meaning of ‘futures literacy’ (FL) depends from both the two individual terms composing FL and the relations between them. The paper offers (i) an analysis of how the meanings of ‘futures’ and ‘literacy’ converge in FL, and (ii) a review of a variety of issues that FL should be able to address in order to eventually become a full-fledged framework for the future, such as (a) the world as an incomplete process; (b) the different ways in which one can address the future; (c) the many modes of anticipation; (d) cultural heritage; (e) real utopias; and (f) the role of complexity in decision-making and science.

Sustainability as a Real Utopia – Heuristics for transformative sustainability research

The idea of ‘Sustainability as a Real Utopia’ elaborated on here adapts sociologist Erik Olin Wright’s emancipatory social science and is a heuristic informed by critical realism and social theory for interdisciplinary research on viable alternatives that move society towards achieving sustainability. Starting from the proposition that many environmental problems are rooted in how social structures and institutions interact with nature by shaping human agency, we argue for concretely situated analysis aimed at guiding human agency towards changing those root causes. Then, drawing on concrete examples from sustainability research, we elaborate on three central tasks: diagnosing and critiquing environmental problems, elaborating viable alternatives and proposing a theory of transformation. Finally, we discuss, and welcome dialogue around two central and interlinked challenges of our approach to transformative sustainability research: that of scales, and that of the distinction and relationship between reforms and transformation.

Researching for Desirable Futures: From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives

Researching for Desirable Futures: From Real Utopias to Imagining Alternatives

Transforming the World Through Work, Aesthetics and Politics: An Analysis of Theatre Collectives as Real Utopias

O presente artigo debruça-se sobre os coletivos de artistas a partir do enquadramento teórico da ciência social emancipatória de Erik Olin Wright. A análise comparativa de coletivos teatrais em Portugal e no Brasil evidencia o caráter precário do trabalho artístico, mas revela também múltiplas resistências através de diferentes dinâmicas de organização e ação coletiva. Através de dois estudos de caso procura-se demonstrar como alguns coletivos teatrais, tal como proposto por Wright, (1) elaboram um diagnóstico e crítica do mundo e do sistema capitalista, (2) imaginam e procuram colocar na prática alternativas “viáveis” e (3) debruçam-se sobre os obstáculos e as possibilidades de transformação. O argumento central é que estes coletivos constituem organizações emancipatórias que articulam a sua linguagem artística com novas formas de organização social e de produção.

Journey Through Utopia

Journey Through Utopia

«Сентябрьская группа»: от аналитического марксизма к нормативной политической философии

Analytical Marxism – formerly also known as the “September group” – is a branch of Anglo-Saxon social theory, political and normative philosophy. There are several publications on the set in the Russian humanities and social sciences, but all articles are limited to the sociological aspect of the work of analytical Marxists. In this article we propose to consider another aspect of this direction – normative aspect. To show this aspect of analytical Marxists, the author suggests considering the movement in historical dynamics. It originates from the publication of “Karl Marx’s Theory of History” (1978) by Canadian-English philosopher J.A. Cohen. Cohen tried to rid Marxism of Hegelianism and make it the subject of a real science, which set the framework the current’s activity. At the first stage of the work, analytical Marxists (J.A. Cohen, Jon Elster, John Roemer, Erik Olin Wright, Robert Brenner, Adam Przeworski and others) worked within the framework of sociology and historical sociology, combining the problems raised by Marx with various scientific methods – game theory, rational choice theory, historical sociology, etc. By the early 1990’s, some of the participants of the movement left the group (Elster, Przeworski), while others refocused on new topics, namely, normative political philosophy. Arguing with the ideas and arguments of John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and others, analytical Marxists answered the problems of normative theory in their own way – an attempt to combine freedom and equality (Cohen), egalitarianism (Roemer), real utopias (Wright), and basic income (Philippe Van Parijs).

Утопия в новейшем западном марксизме: аномалия, надежда, наука

The article investigates the problem of utopia in actual Marxism. It is well known that Marx and Engels opposed their “scientific socialism” to “utopian so­cialism”. The followers of Marx have long supported this orthodox teaching. However, since the middle of the 20th century, Western Marxists have begun to talk about utopia as the central element of their social philosophy. Sociologist Alvin Goldner called these “anomalies”. They stood out as a separate system of critical Marxism from the theoretical system of “scientific Marxism”. The first person to write about utopia was Ernst Bloch. Then Herbert Marcuse turned to the subject. Since the early 1990’s, when it would seem that Marxism was in cri­sis due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the failure of left-wing politics, it has been actively theorized about utopia. In addition to philosophers (Fredric Jameson, Slavoj Žižek) various types of sociologists (Erik Olin Wright, David Harvey) begin to write about utopia. The sociologist Göran Therborn called this trend in actual Marxism “American futurism”. The author of the paper writes that left-wing sociologists and philosophers abandon the traditional understand­ing of utopia (“blueprint”) and think it through in a new way. Sociologists try to talk about utopia in terms of science (“real utopias”), while philosophers theorize utopia as a hope, a horizon of the impossible, a desire for a better future. Despite the fact that these are two different understandings of utopia, the important thing is that for recent Marxists (even “scientific” ones), utopia is one of the most im­portant categories of social theory.

A Theory of Argumentation: The Case of Ethical, Political, and Utopian Thinking

A relevant problem in political philosophy and political theory is the distinction between political and utopian arguments. The boundary between these two types of argumentation may be blurred, which leads us to the point when we often deal with contaminations of both ways of thinking in individual positions. This involves, for example, presenting a utopian argument as a political argument and vice versa. The main purpose of the article is to organize these issues by applying the argumentation model developed by Stephen Toulmin to the analysis of both theoretical approaches. The three main problems of this work are: 1) the distinction between political and ethical arguments; 2) identifying the proper structure of political argumentation; 3) evaluation of the coherence of the idea of a realistic utopia (proposed by John Rawls).

Research That Is Real and Utopian: Indigenous Knowledge as a Resource to Revitalise High School Poetry

This article presents the reflections of a research team from the ZAPP-IKS project. ZAPP (the South African Poetry Project) undertook a three-year NRF-funded research project titled “Reconceptualising Poetry Education for South African Classrooms through Infusing Indigenous Poetry Texts and Practices”. The research on which we report here was undertaken as part of that project. The team consists of an English teacher, a poet and an academic. Together, they attempted a research intervention at a Johannesburg secondary school. The article presents their reflections on the challenges, successes and potentials of the attempted research intervention, which was intended to energise and inspire the teaching of English poetry by drawing from and developing indigenous knowledges and principles. Presented as a play, a praise poem and a conventional academic analysis by the school-based teacher, the university-based poet, and the university-based academic, respectively, the article offers diverse analyses as an illustration of how research relationships may be understood, experienced and represented in various ways. These analyses draw implicitly and explicitly on conceptualisations of indigeneity and indigenous knowledges, as well as decoloniality, with the conventional academic analysis making use of Erik Olin Wright’s concept of real utopias to frame its understanding of the project and the other two perspectives on it. Together they invite readers to challenge and transform the conventions that govern educational practices, research and representation, but caution against naïve idealism when doing so.

Political alternatives for constitutional democracy: between utopia, pandemic and dystopia

Abstract Perhaps there are never too many different theories about the organization of society, ideas about the normative framework of life in a political community and suggestions on how to institutionalize the political system. Perhaps they go out in public too early. This could also apply to those reflections on society and to those political philosophies that bear the label of utopia. There is no doubt about the importance of such human investigations of what is and what should be. And there is no doubt about the usefulness of constantly imagining what it should be. However, analytical and explanatory caution is required when the word utopia is used to suggest the utopian nature of an idea. In other words, what looks like a utopia can already be presented to us as a provable and tangible fact, only that too many people do not perceive it for too long, and therefore it remains unfulfilled in social practice. Is this really a utopia? On the other hand, what may seem completely understandable, feasible or even self-evident can appear extremely utopian when it comes to the normative approaches to social regulation and the conditions for achieving a “better society.” The deviation of political practice and legal practice from what should be understandable or even self-evident according to the text of the constitution and international law, the findings of jurisprudence, philosophical insights and common sense in political decision-making and in the drafting and implementation of the applicable law is so great that, paradoxically, precisely that which is understandable, feasible or even self-evident appears utopian. And how can utopianism be combined with the realization that so many major and persistent social problems can be solved so easily and quickly - even if only by rethinking the legal system and social realm? How can a human being efficiently oppose neoliberal politics and unbridled capitalist practice, the poor functioning of the rule of law, the low quality of the welfare state, the excessive threat to fundamental human rights and freedoms, the inadequate protection of social rights, the insufficient commitment to the value of solidarity and the inadequate role and weakness of morality in social practice? Can the answers to fundamental social questions and solutions to the greatest problems only be found in a real and literal utopia? I do not believe so. I believe that communitarianism can be a good political alternative. Understood as social liberalism and as a social democracy based on the rule of law, morally founded on social solidarity as a fundamental value. I am convinced that the constitutions of the EU Member States and the EU legal order enable it. A strong and interventionist state is needed to realize the constitutional possibilities of a high-quality welfare state, effectively protected social rights, the realized social function of property and a society based on solidarity. Ideas are needed. Even if they seem so crazy, even if they seem utopian. In these times when the devil has taken the joke away, when people are again protesting massively in the streets, when they protest (unsuccessfully, of course), when it is difficult to know exactly what is happening and why, when more and more people are increasingly confused and frightened, when systemic violence increasingly turns into physical violence, when it is difficult to remain calm and thoughtful, when it is difficult to tame anger and rage..., it is necessary to step out of the existing coordinate system, out of the cube, to form and communicate ideas that seem crazy, utopian... Now, right now, ideas are needed, crazy ideas. We need a utopia. And faith and hope in it. Faith and hope, which will be the driving force of active action, of striving for realization – of a utopia.

Is Liberal Socialism Possible? Reflections on “Real Utopias”

This essay, written in memory of Erik Olin Wright (1947–2019), explores the possibility of liberal socialism. Wright sought to rescue both liberalism and socialism from their demonstrated capacity for depredation. His legacy challenges reformers to proceed with the audacity of real, and realistic, utopianism together with an awareness that, unfortunately, the obverse of an appealing utopianism always beckons.

Love and Marxism

Erik Olin Wright’s scholarship is often considered to be formed by two entirely disjoint projects represented by his early work on class analysis and his later writings on “real utopias.” This essay uses Michael Burawoy’s recent formulation of the “two Marxisms” thesis as a foil to argue for the continuities rather than discontinuities in the body of work produced by Wright. More particularly, the critical spirit of the real utopias project infused Wright’s work on class analysis from its inception. It is further argued that the limitations Wright encountered in realizing those critical aims directly seeded the search in his later work for institutional design principles and an explicit articulation of normative values that could undergird alternatives to capitalism.

The Alternative to Utopia Is Myopia

This essay, written in memory of Erik Olin Wright (1947–2019), considers Wright’s project of constructing and identifying real utopias. It confronts a tension in Wright’s oeuvre, the question of the knowledge by means of which reformers can identify the utopias that ground the really existing real utopias.