Utopian Project Research Articles

Queering utopia: Pride walks in modernist Chandigarh

In this paper, we queer the understanding of urban spaces to move forward a utopian project. ‘Let this be a new town unfettered by the traditions of the past, a step into the future’, proclaimed Nehru about Chandigarh. Designed by Le Corbusier and his team in the 1950s, Chandigarh was symbolically and materially meant to propel India into modernity. Although built with the ideals of socialism and secularism, Chandigarh is very much an elite city. This paper traces the Queer Pride parade initiated in the year 2013 to appreciate how non-normative groups challenge and subvert the planning of Chandigarh. Our attempt in this paper is to queer the utopian understanding of Chandigarh. We do this through a reading of pride walks as disruptive moments that assign new possibilities and meanings to public spaces. Technocratic solutions proposed as part of grand urban planning imaginations can never take us closer to utopia. Instead, we argue, it is through disruptions caused by events like pride parades that we slowly inch towards utopia. In making the above argument, this paper pushes the boundaries of both queer theory and urban utopian imaginations.

Противопоставление социального идеала социальной реальности как базовая черта утопического проекта

The article about social ideal and social reality contradiction. One of the main characteristics of utopian theory is acknowledgement of existing social reality as social harmony distortion. On that base utopian project as nonexisting society model acknowledged to be legitimate in contrary to existing social reality. While liberal model in contrast to classical utopia acknowledges individualism as basic value, by itself this remains utopian contradiction of ideal and reality. It draws to conclusion that utopian ideal legitimation requires acknowledgement of existing social reality as social being distortion.

How Far Does the Diverse Economies Approach Take Us?

How Far Does the Diverse Economies Approach Take Us?

Re-Narrating Radical Cities over Time and through Space: Imagining Urban Activism through Critical Pedagogical Practices

Radical cities have historically been hotbeds of transformative paradigms, political changes, activism, and social movements, and have given rise to visionary ideas, utopian projects, revolutionary ideologies, and debates. These cities have served as incubators for innovative ideas, idealistic projects, revolutionary philosophies, and lively debates. The streets, squares, and public spaces of radical cities have been the backdrop for protests, uprisings, and social movements that have had both local and global significance. This research project aims to explore and reimagine radical cities and urban activism using a variety of visual and collaborative pedagogical approaches. This project will study and categorize these cities through comparative case studies from different regions, including North America, and Latin America, and beyond, in order to better understand and interpret pivotal societal transitions.

Утопия в истории российской культуры: повторение пройденного или конструирование будущего? (обзор научной конференции) Т.С. Паниотова

In today’s difficult geopolitical situation, when social alarmism dominates in the public mind, it is important to comprehend the domestic experience of con­structing positive images of the future. Utopia is directly related to this, despite the trail of a “companion of totalitarianism”, a “negative pole” charged with “poisonous energy”, etc., following it in Russian, mostly liberal, humanitarian studies. How can these characteristics be combined with another generally re­cognized statement: utopia is one of the main achievements in the history of the Western ideas, which is directly related to philosophy, literature, politics, and art; is it deeply rooted in human nature, because it is connected with the dream to break with the unsatisfying surrounding reality to create an alternative, more per­fect world? The 4th All-Russian (with international participants) scientific con­ference “Utopian projects in the history of culture”, held October 26–28, 2022 at the Southern Federal University (Rostov-on-Don) on the topic “Russian experi­ence in constructing the future” was an attempt to overcome this “cognitive dis­sonance”.

Epistemocracy: a utopian project or the model of the state in knowledge societies?

The article analyzes the concept of epistemocracy as a variant of a utopian project of building a society in which political power is distributed on the basis of knowledge and political competence, and the problem of a “bad” (ignorant, poorly informed) voter, whose wrong choice during voting, according to the developers of the concept, can lead to negative consequences, is solved by his education. The idea is substantiated that, on the one hand, this concept meets the intentions of building knowledge societies as a global trend enshrined in UNESCO materials and documents, and, on the other hand, has a number of alarming moments, in particular, related to the introduction of restrictions on universal suffrage for “bad” voters.

Контуры будущего в советской градостроительной утопии

The article examines the forms of the desired future created by Soviet culture by means of urban utopian projects. The authors prove that in the Soviet era, utopia as a product of modernity ceases to be unattainable, becomes temporalized, and acquires an almost tangible configuration. As a result, the present and the future are being connected by constant practices of transformation from one into the other. Examples of constructivist architecture in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don are considered as such configurations.

«Старинный театр» как утопический проект пассеизма Серебряного века

In the era of the Silver Age, which is called the Russian Renaissance, there was a great interest in the art and culture of past centuries. The foreseeing of the coming cataclysms sharpened the question about the future of Russia. The two poles of Russian art of the Silver Age — futurism (going into the future) and the avant-garde associated with it, as well as passéisme (returning to the past, their brightest representatives were the members of The World of Art who organized the performances of the Ancient Theatre) clearly demonstrated the rejection of history. The author considers the utopian project of the Silver Age — Ancient Theatre, which appeared in St. Petersburg as an initiative of the director N. Evreinov and Baron N. Drizen. The author studies the positions of passéisme, guided by a cultural-historical approach, choosing the analysis of secondary data as a methodological instrument. On the stage it was planned to embody the theatrical forms of past eras, from antiquity to modernity. Ancient Theatre had existed only for 2 seasons (1907–1908) and (1911–1912). The third season (1914–1915), in which a production of the Italian comedy del arte was planned, didn’t happen because of the beginning of the First World War. The new stage techniques and a new understanding of theatre art was based, among other things, on the past theatre eras. And the passéisme of Ancient Theatre played a notable role in it. Turning to other eras helped in the understanding of the specifics of acting skills and the need to educate a new actor who masterfully controls his body.

From the Utopia of Sustainable Development to Sustainable Topoi

The hegemonic discourse of sustainable development adopted as an international alternative solution to the socio-ecological crisis has implied a progression of the modern utopian project and most importantly, an intrinsic contradiction and omission that positions sustainable development as something that is not in any place. To understand, discuss, and transcend this oxymoron, we first review the modern utopian project and analyze its paradigmatic and ontological assumptions about knowledge, time, and space. Second, we show that sustainable development just re-adapted the founding premises of the modern utopias. Third, to transcend the modern utopian facet of sustainable development, we suggest an understanding of sustainability that stems from a topographical way of thinking. We suggest this approach allows us to seek alternatives to the modern epistemology and ontology that have shaped the current dominant vision of sustainable development. Finally, we propose to move from the modern utopia of sustainable development to the praxis of topographical sustainabilities to trigger a more comprehensive and relational praxis of sustainability.

Neoliberalism as a Utopian Project of the Right: A Note

Neoliberalism as a Utopian Project of the Right: A Note

Utopia as “No-Place”: Utopias, Colonialism and International Law

Utopia, etymologically, is both the no-place (ou-topos) and the good-place (eu-topos). For Thomas More, his no-place was a ‘New Island’, an imaginary location in the “New World”. Yet, More’s no-place is inhabited. More’s utopian construction begins with the displacement of indigenous communities. From the 17th to 19th century, across much of Western utopian literature, no-places were constructed through colonial exploits. Through ideas of “discovery” alongside the displacement of indigenous communities, regulating women’s bodies (the literal putting of people in their place), the invocation of science and ideas of civilisation, colonial utopias were created. Strikingly, these narratives bare unmistakable similarities with the colonial discourses of international law. International law supplied the basis for creating no-place. It made fine distinctions based on “proper” land use that led to mass violence against indigenous populations. Intersecting with scholarship that traces the role of utopian literature in colonialism, this article explores how white western patriarchal utopian projects – the “canonical” utopian texts - influenced and were influenced by international law. This paper assembles a taxonomy of no-place within Western utopian literature, using feminist and post-colonial utopian critiques to problematise the construing of Terra Incognita Australis as no-place. Reading utopian literature from feminist and post-colonial perspectives highlights tensions around the idea of no-place and offers a basis to begin imagining a decolonised law. For there is no “no-place”, just as the lands (and seas) in the fictional utopias were (generally) inhabited, colonised lands are indigenous people’s places, their homes, their communities, and their lives.

Цифровой паноптизм и пространство свободы: от «умного дома» к «умному городу»

The article deals with the the problem of digital panopticism in the context of the concepts of “smart home” (intelligent building) and “smart city”. In the 21st century more subtle forms of influence on the human mind and new forms of implementing the concept of control of society appear. The gradual transition from the mastered, meaningful space of the home to the creation of an automated environment creates, despite the speculative nature of the discussions, very real prerequisites for the implementation of a new form of “disciplinary power”. The comfort of everyday life and the desire to automate and make the most rational use of the architectural environment of any scale, from an individual building to the city as a whole, no longer requires the physical architectural embodiment of “panopticism. The author analyzes the concept of a “smart home” in Russia and abroad and the concept of a “smart city” using the example of utopian projects of cities of the future, which, despite numerous problems, move from the abstract category of “dreams of the future” into the implementation stage (NEOM, Telosa, Akon City).

After Utopia: negotiating hope and fatalism in João Almino’s literary Brasília

This article examines João Almino’s novels Idéias para onde passar o fim do mundo (1987) and As cinco estações do amor (2001), considering how the author refuses the anti-utopian consensus that defined criticism of Brasília in the late twentieth century. In both works, the Federal District’s legacy of utopian projection is understood to have failed. This same legacy, however, continues to resonate, counterbalancing individual and collective disillusionment. The article argues that Almino’s nuanced, ambiguous portrait of utopianism represents a post-utopian approach to social change that nonetheless meaningfully defies prevailing disregard for utopia at the time of the novels’ publication.

The Art of Andrei Denisov’s Sermons: Rhetorical Strategies and Techniques

This article studies the genre characteristics of Andrei Denisov’s sermon; he was the most prominent leader of the second wave of Russian Old Belief, a writer, and a polemicist. The author refers to previously unknown texts by Andrei Denisov that were published by the author of this article earlier and to rhetorical manuscripts. The author implements the methodology of source studies and textology. The problematic context of this research is determined by Vyg Baroque as an essential part of Moscow Baroque. The hermeneutic approach underlying this study provides the interpretation of the writings of Andrei Denisov in the context of Vyg literary culture with a strong rhetorical accent. The article focuses on the main work created in the Vyg community, i. e. the Rhetoric Code, and the rhetorical studies of the Baroque poet and philosopher Andrei Belobotsky, in which Andrei Denisov showed great interest. The rhetorical thought of this period dictated the genre model of the sermon, the structure, and the style of the texts. The Baroque interpretation of hermeneutics influenced the semantics of the sermon, which was dominated by semantic duality and “allegorical meaning”. It manifests itself in the structure-forming role of biblical quotations (“themes”) and in the abundance of metaphors, symbols, and allegories. The article reveals metaphors that shaped the central eschatological myth based on the opposition of the hostile outdoor world, desecrated by the Antichrist, and the Vyg Pustyn as a space of spiritual sanctuary. Sermons created by Andrei Denisov reflect the typical Baroque concept of vanitas vanitatum. Their author was interested in the ontological nature of time and anthropological problems that became relevant during the Baroque period. The article also examines the communicative model of preaching discourse determined by the prophetic image of the author, who constructed it through biblical quotations. The article explains the rhythmic organisation of sermons designed for listening. Based on the analysis of the rhetorical techniques used by Andrei Denisov, it concludes that the author was eager to create a powerful sermon that would influence the establishment of the foundations of the faith and spiritual formation of Old Believers. The article also sheds light on the reception of the pan-European Baroque style in the literature of the Old Believers of the early eighteenth century. The heart of Vyg Baroque was functional didacticism, which served the main goal of preaching, i. e. asserting the religious and moral values that underlay the Vyg utopian project.

Imagined Solidarities: Cairo‐Moscow and the Struggle for Realist Art

This essay examines an understudied history of reciprocal art exhibitions between Cairo and Moscow during the Cold War period. It focuses on the work of Gamal El Sagini, Inji Efflatoun, and Hamed Owais, and sets out their role in forging new networks of revolutionary art in the Soviet Union. By addressing how post‐colonial art was received and utilized in Soviet Russia, this article uncovers the extent of Soviet cultural engagement with Egypt, the African national liberation struggles, pan‐Arabism, and international solidarity amongst the Second and Third Worlds more broadly. Offering a more complex reading of the processes behind Soviet involvement in the utopian project of socialist worldmaking, this essay argues for the need to assess critically Soviet claims to anti‐imperialism, peace, international solidarity, and friendship. It discusses the role of art in these processes, and addresses the changing definitions of realism, nationalism, and humanism in the socialist world, making a contribution to alternative understandings of post‐war figuration.

An Afropolitan in South Asia

Abstract In this photo essay, the authors gather a set of photographs of only partially visible subjects to speak about the tense and unpredictable encounters between different postcolonial histories. Staged as a conversation between an anthropologist and a photographer, the essay touches on the necessary modalities of such encounters, be it surprise, friendship, location and dislocation, or sometimes even invisibility. Central to the essay are conversations about encounters between the authors themselves, mediated by the sights, sounds, and serendipities of the postcolonial city. Using the Invisible Borders Trans-African Project—a decade-long venture bringing together artists, photographers, and writers in road trips across Africa—as a starting point, the essay considers the implications of broadening this imaginary into other borders and postcolonial border beings and whether this might constitute a particular kind of utopian project.

Fantastic Consumption and the Utopia of Self‐Cannibalism in Ludwig Tieck's Des Lebens Überfluß

Consumption is a central problem in Ludwig Tieck's 1838 novella Des Lebens Überfluß. This essay argues that autosarcophagy stands at the imaginary core of a utopian project of secession from nineteenth century social and material relations. Beginning with the tale of the self‐devouring criminal that Heinrich relates at the beginning of the novella, eating as a bodily act structures the novella's confrontation with the legacies of German Romanticism and Idealism and the problem of living a decommodified life in an emerging global capitalist order. By exploring the text's utopianism, this essay illuminates the story's more radical political stakes while also situating the novella relative to nineteenth century concerns on the philosophical dimensions of eating.

Palestine +100: Stories from a century after the Nakba Edited by BasmaGhalayini. Manchester, U.K: Comma Press, 2019.

Palestine +100: Stories from a century after the Nakba Edited by BasmaGhalayini. Manchester, U.K: Comma Press, 2019.

BOGDANOV’S UTOPIA AND THE MARXIST CONCEPTION OF GENDER

The article deals with the attitude to the problem of gender in the first decades of the existence of the Soviet Republic – the position of the party (the Bolshevik project) and the utopian project of A. Bogdanov. Concepts have both similarities and differences. Both are based on the idea that it is possible to solve the problem only as a result of a change in the political system and the coming to power of the working masses and emphasizes the importance of labor and the principles of collectivism in the society being created. The project of A. Bogdanov is built on the basis of organizational theory, which is the basis of the society of the future, where social life is built on a strictly scientific basis. A special role is given to the organizational culture that forms a new person. The party position is based on the Marxist theory of gender and presupposes party control of all aspects of life, the subordination of personal interests to class interests, and the ideology of male superiority takes the form of constitutional or proclaimed equality.

ELA as English Language Abolition: Toward a Pedagogy of Communicative Belonging

AbstractRacialized notions of language and literacy are harmful to children in U.S. schools, and English Language Arts is a primary site whereby white supremacist language ideologies are enacted and justified, being most harmful to Black, Indigenous, and other students of Color. The authors—Mariana Souto‐Manning, Danny C. Martinez, and Adam D. Musser—former ELA teachers and current university‐based educators committed to the pursuit of justice, are motivated by the questions What can we do? and What should we do? in response to this harm. This conceptual article briefly traces the history of harm embedded in ELA classrooms before theorizing a debordering of English Language Arts and advancing a healing pedagogy for communicative belonging. Guided by the restorative justice principles of harms, needs, and obligations, it engages quilting as metaphor and process. Through quilting, the authors inquire into the harms of ELA as a disciplinary project rooted in exclusion, anti‐Blackness, and colonialism. Undertaking reparative caring and attending to Black, Indigenous, and other students of Color often unaccounted for in education reforms, Souto‐Manning, Martinez, and Musser advance ELA as English Language Abolition, seeking to abolish tokens of diversity in ELA classrooms and create spaces for true belonging via collaborative, future‐oriented work. Ultimately, while recognizing that the future imaginings of communicative belonging are part of a utopian project that imagines learning ecologies freed from and free of colonial and white logics, this article forwards a healing pedagogy of communicative belonging, offering the potential to abolish the harms long perpetrated in ELA classrooms by dominant conceptualizations of ELA.