Utopian Thinking Research Articles

Chinese Homosexuals in a Utopianised World: Active Involvement, Strategic Interactions, and Contingent Engagement with Practical Life

ABSTRACT Boys’ Love (BL), known as Danmei (耽美) in China, is a popular female-oriented male-male intimacy genre celebrated by today’s Chinese younger generation. From 2000 to 2020, BL fiction rapidly developed, becoming a major expression of male homosexuality and homoeroticism in China. This research detects the dynamics between BL fiction’s utopianized space and gay readers—a community simultaneously being the major subject of BL representation and the minority of BL fans. Conducting semi-structured interviews with three Chinese BL gay readers from high school, college, and workplace, this research delineates a representative picture of Chinese gay readers’ intentions, experiences, and opinions of involving a utopianized BL world. Using Ruth Levitas’ utopian thinking framework, this research investigates how the utopianized representations of idealized homosexual romance, arousing homoerotic behaviors, and the normalized gay everydayness in Chinese BL fiction from 2000 to 2020 can impact gay readers’ engagement with practical lives. The study argues that Chinese BL gay readers’ active involvement and strategic interactions enable them to contingently engage with their lived reality, demonstrating their subjective role as active audiences with agency. This result adds to contemporary BL studies and provides an enriched utopian thinking framework, calling for subsequent minority research to value individuals and individuality.

Social Reproductive Labor and Uto/Dystopia: An Analysis of Leila, Midnight Robber and Woman World

ABSTRACT Contemporary science fiction and speculative fiction with utopian/dystopian aspects from South Asia and the Caribbean have rarely been studied in tandem. Furthermore, no scholarly work has analyzed such texts produced under conditions of contemporary capitalism in the light of social reproduction theory which considers social reproductive labor that rejuvenates labor power. I study Leila (2017) by the Indian writer Prayaag Akbar, Midnight Robber (2000) by the Jamaican-born Nalo Hopkinson, and Woman World (2018) by the diasporic Indian writer Aminder Dhaliwal to connect social reproductive labor and utopianism and argue that social reproductive labor rejuvenates the labor power of utopian agents in social reproductive spaces such as homes, schools, hospitals, gardens etc. resisting dystopian conditions, nurturing hope, and rejuvenating utopian thinking. I question how utopianism is related to social reproductive labor in postcolonial contexts of the Global South, and propose that 1) dystopian scenarios are brought about by control of social reproductive spaces and 2) progress/betterment is actualized with renewal and rejuvenation via social reproductive labor. I contend that relating twenty-first-century utopianism to social reproduction is a valuable and novel approach, especially in postcolonial contexts where conditions of labor have been determined by complex histories of colonialism, enslavement, and indentured labor.

Utopian Method

We analyze reader responses to Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book to suggest the novel offers a platform from which to imagine new, often utopian, thresholds of aging and intergenerational relationships. We suggest the way literature encourages utopian thinking is two-fold, allowing readers to reflect on the current state of the world around them and encouraging them to reimagine new possibilities. The aim of the reading groups was to use the novel to reflect on current age norms – socially, culturally, and politically – and reimagine new social futures relating to intergenerational relationships. In this paper, we discuss the findings from using The Summer Book as a platform to discuss attitudes to aging, time, intergenerational relationships, and age expectations. Participants opened up a number of avenues to reimagine age expectations, categories, and relationships, whilst also relating the fiction to their own experiences, which then often translated into discussions of how age-based stereotypes and intergenerational relationships need to be radically rethought. There were three main themes that we identified from these discussions: 1) countering age-expectations on the intergenerational island, 2) creating counter-narratives through the character of the Grandmother, 3) using the novel’s relational behaviors and practices to imagine better futures for intergenerational relationships.

‘Quixoptimism’ Translated by Jim Hicks

This essay, which argues for the contemporary political relevance of Cervantes’s masterpiece Don Quixote, was written in parallel with two theatrical performances of stories, poetry, and music, Don Chisciotte e gli invincibili (Don Quixote and the Invincibles) and Chisciottimisti (Quixoptimists), written and performed by De Luca together with the singer-songwriter Gianmaria Testa and the musician and composer Gabriele Mirabassi. 1 In ‘Quixoptimism,’ De Luca criticizes commonplace dismissals of Quixote as a dreamer and utopian thinker and compares him to other prophetic figures, including Jesus. He argues that Quixote’s ability to see beneath appearances and risk ridicule is lucid and essential, and that his refusal to admit defeat makes him invincible.

Situatedness and distanciation: Education in a time of ecological crisis and climate crisis

Abstract In this paper, I explore the significance of place in education. The historical context is expressed by the ecological and climate crises in a world distinguished by the unjust distribution of privileges and burdens. I elucidate the concept of place by entering the tradition of the pedagogy of place. Here, the significance of place is accentuated with a sensitivity to the local context, in contrast to other educational approaches that emphasize more generic, abstract knowledge. A central premise is the notion of place as a delimited unit that is distinguished from other places. This stable notion, I argue, needs to be reconsidered in the present. With reference to Massey, I accentuate relations as pivotal to a notion of place that accommodates both a sense of belonging and conflicts of power and interest. I hold that education at this time in history should be sensitive to our situatedness in everyday life’s web of relationships. Still, general knowledge is required to bring up perspectives that enable students to critically conceive the place in which they are situated. I make and discuss these claims with reference to and in critique of Young’s notion of powerful knowledge and Klafki’s reformulation of German Didaktik. A central concern is to clarify the mediation of situated knowledge and general knowledge in educational practice. In the final part of the paper, I bring in elements from critical hermeneutics and utopian thinking, approaching Bildung as a process involving situatedness, distantiation, and refiguration.

The Mind and the Political

In this commentary I present a brief overview of Maiese and Hanna’s work, The Mind-Body Politic, and highlight their valuable contribution in extending the insights from philosophy of mind to critically evaluate our contemporary social institutions and politics. Then I discuss some of the reservations and open questions about the way Maiese and Hanna lay out their version of a political philosophy of mind. In doing so, I focus on three main shortcomings in Maiese and Hanna’s work. First, I discuss how despite their critical view of Cartesian dualism, their own view of the way society is organized and works is dualistic. I argue that their dualistic view of society results in utopian thinking, and perhaps a more productive and constructive approach to our current predicaments would rather be an immanent critique. Second, I highlight the unclarity and confusion in some of their conceptual frameworks and their account of politics such as the way they use ideology and governmentality. Finally, I criticize their analysis of social institutions, especially the way they see new institutional structures can be formed. The project for a political philosophy of mind that Maiese and Hanna set up is worth pursuing and Maiese and Hanna already provide many hints and directions for its productive and constructive pursuit.

Między utopią a obywatelskim nieposłuszeństwem. Problem przemocy w myśli społeczno-politycznej Edwarda Abramowskiego

The article attempts to examine the problem of violence in Edward Abramowski’s socio-political thought from the perspective of two concepts: utopian thinking, which, according to Karl Popper, inevitably leads to violence, and civil disobedience or an act of resistance to authority that rejects violence in principle. The first part of the article shows how Abramowski’s critique of utopianism shapes his vision of a world devoid of violence, realised step by step through grassroots institutions. The second part, then, is devoted to ‘collective conspiracy against the government’, which, as one of the ways of practising his utopia, allows the struggle for national liberation. Ultimately, it seems that the rejection of violence puts Abramowski closer to piecemeal engineering than to a utopian one, while his social vision fits into Popper’s concept of open society.

An apology for utopia: on the return of utopian constructions to the mainstream sociological theorizing

Utopian thought, the aspiration toward idealized conditions, and the progression toward advancement have historically constituted a cornerstone of the modernist ethos. Sociology, as an intellectual offspring of the modern epoch, has inherently engaged with utopian constructs – directing its gaze towards conceivable societal futures. In the current era where global challenges – such as climate change, social inequality, and populist political movements – present complex social problems, the relevance of utopian thinking in sociology is underscored as a tool for envisioning transformative solutions. Nonetheless, contemporary developments within the discipline signal a marked attenuation of utopian fervor. This paper scrutinizes the factors contributing to the diminished enthusiasm for utopian speculations within sociological theory. The decline is largely attributed to a shift towards postmodern paradigms, characterized by skepticism towards grand narratives and a pervasive mid-20th-century critique of utopianism. Despite this, the heuristic value of utopian thinking as a methodological instrument for social analysis remains substantial. The central thesis advocates for a resurgence of utopian thought within sociological inquiry, proposing that its restoration functions as a potent critical apparatus. Amid pressing societal crises, sociological engagement with utopian ideals is not merely an academic exercise but a practical imperative. It empowers the discipline to envision alternative social configurations, articulate social aspirations, and pragmatically approach their realization. Utopian thought can stimulate innovative policy-making, encourage societal engagement, and help construct resilient social systems in the face of adversity. Presently, Russian sociology, reflective of broader global sociological trends, does not proffer a societal ideal, hence it navigates without direction, merely mapping and interpreting the existing social landscape. This trajectory has practical implications, potentially limiting the discipline’s ability to be prescriptive and proactive. Confronted with this reality, Russian sociologists – and the discipline more broadly – are urged to rekindle the utopian imagination as a pivotal component of their intellectual endeavor. In doing so, they may foster a renewed sense of direction and purpose in the discipline of sociology, making it all the more pertinent in addressing the multifaceted complexities of today’s world.

Anything is possible: Word of Life and utopian thinking during the revolutionary processes in Estonia, 1987–1991

ABSTRACT The late 1980s was a chaotic period in Soviet Estonia. The liberalization process of the Soviet Union brought about a sense of freedom and the possibility that Estonian people would finally have a say in the future of Estonia. This unexpected feeling of freedom formed the basis for various attempts to narrate a better society, including religious visions of a new Estonia. Several of the new religious movements that emerged during this period developed their own ideas about the future of Estonia, with some incorporating utopian perspectives. Although these movements had distinct views on the identity and independence of Estonia, their ideas have not yet been thoroughly researched. The aim of this article is to show how one of the movements, Word of Life, addressed these times of change, and to elaborate on what kind of utopias about Estonia are construed in the discourses.

Education (Documentaries) and Utopian Thinking

This article examines three films that comment on public education in Germany. Berlin Rebel High School (Alexander Kleider, 2016 ), Die Kinder der Utopie (Hubertus Siegert, 2019), and Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Maria Speth, 2021 ) are German documentaries that present a critique of the current educational system and, at the same time, allow glimpses into classrooms that offer alternative educational models. All three films align themselves with the educational theories of utopian, radical, or critical pedagogies and embrace an approach to education that rejects the definition of a static end goal and emphasizes the unfinished, continuous nature of pedagogical practice. In the films’ examples, education’s utopian dimension resides in the process of striving for positive change, in the critical analysis of the present and the purposeful and collaborative action of learners and educators to change it for the better. The analysis of the formal, narrative, and paratextual strategies of the documentaries shows that critical hope is generated by the films on two levels, first, through the portrayal of concrete examples of alternative pedagogical practices and, second, through the films’ participation in the educational process.

“The future will be green, or not at all”: How positive (utopian) and negative (dystopian) thoughts about the future shape collective climate action

The global movement to combat climate change is focused on pressuring governments, industry and other key decision-makers to take urgent action to mitigate the causes and impacts of climate change. The movement has played an important role in global transformation and change. What motivates people to engage in collective climate action? The current study examines the role of prospection, that is, thoughts and emotions about the future, in shaping collective climate action. Two studies (Study 1: N = 413; Study 2: N = 440) test experimentally the effects of positive (utopian) and negative (dystopian) future-oriented thinking on collective climate action via future-oriented emotions (hope and fear). Participants were assigned to engage in one of two imagination tasks focussing either on a utopian society that has adapted to climate change, or a dystopian society, or a control condition (passive or active). Across both studies, utopian thinking was found to indirectly affect collective climate action by evoking feelings of hope. Additionally, an indirect effect of dystopian thinking on collective climate action through fear was found in Study 2. These results suggest that both forms of future-oriented thinking may have the potential to increase collective climate action intentions by evoking an emotional response.

(No) Hope for the future? A design agenda for rewidening and rewilding higher education with utopian imagination

This article argues for exploring, connecting, and applying utopian imagination, speculative design, and planetary thinking as a way forward for higher education to reimagine and move towards more hopeful planetary futures. It examines hopepunk and solarpunk perspectives on possible futures to propose a design agenda for rewidening and rewilding higher education and educational technology with utopian imagination. Firstly, the article outlines and develops a framework for wider and wilder futures in higher education, emerging from utopian thinking and desire. Secondly, it connects hopepunk with speculative design and solarpunk with planetary design to highlight and put forward rebellious strategies of hope in envisioning more preferable futures. Thirdly, it approaches the field of educational technology within the context of wide and wild education to establish four planetary orientations concerning educational technology: Higher Education for, in, with, and by the world. Taken together, the article proposes a design agenda for educational technology that integrates utopian imagination and solarpunk practices with planetary educational technology to catalyse the development of more preferable futures in a more-than-human world.

Идея «творящей формы» в эстетике русского авангарда 1920-х годов

The Russian avant-garde of the 1920s was a time of a utopian thinking crisis in theoretical aesthetics and in art. The utopianism of the avant-garde project consisted in the impracticability of the mission of art to totally transform reality and man through aesthetic means. The key idea of the avant-garde aesthetic concepts was the effectiveness of the creative form building the integrity of the life creative matter. The concept of the “creative form” was developed in different directions: from the concept of a single style in all spheres of life and the theory of synthesis of arts to the aesthetics of functionally appropriate forms of the objective environment. The symbolic language of style was a universal aesthetic translation of metaphysical ideas into sensual ontological image of the wholeness of being; synthesis of arts was seen as a means of expressing the initial wholeness of cosmic being; and a functionally appropriate form of the objective environment was understood as a means of direct involvement of man, spontaneously causing his active creative response. The utopianism of the idea of the “creative form” determined its rapid demise, which had a complex of philosophical, social, political and human reasons. The major of them included the totality of the wholeness project, the undervaluation of the individual artistic subject’s creative freedom, the rejection of a substantial spiritual and value-based interpretation of culture, the hope that the aesthetic influence might transform the masses into creative subjects, the narrowing of the potentialities of the utopian project by the attempt to turn it into a methodology of action, the pursuit of realization that limited the growth of its inner potential, and the undervaluation of the real conditions for its implementation.

Memoria, Contuitus, et Expectatio : Revisiting Augustine of Hippo

Abstract: Since the Middle Ages, Augustine and the wealth of his writings have had an enormous impact on Western philosophical thinking. His approach to time and memory, which he sets out in his eleventh book of the Confessions , is one of the most important sources for research about the philosophy of time. Augustine describes time as a permanent movement in which the future passes unceasingly through an unrelated present into the past. Only the very present moment exists, but this present moment is infinitely short. If the past is no more, the future is not yet, and the present is indivisibly brief, memoria becomes the determining factor of human consciousness. Augustine’s theory of memory and time reveals an epistemological connection with the functioning of human consciousness. Since his understanding of time and memory is already of great relevance in many interdisciplinary approaches, it can also become important to the philosophy of music education. Revisiting Augustine’s concept of memoria can give us new impetus on questions about aesthetic education, cancel culture, and utopian thinking.

Beyond Grammars of Utopia: Crisis of Imagination and Utopianism by Negation or Affirmation in James Joyce’s <em>Ulysses</em>

Do utopias emerge from envisioning where we want to live or where we do not want to live? According to Theodor Adorno, polarity, i.e. the grammatical distinction between affirmation and negation, is central to utopian thinking and showcases a crisis of imagination, as we can only conceive a utopian world by negating a given reality (Adorno in Bloch 1975, 68-70). My paper negotiates this idea through a grammatical-conceptual reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Specifically, it argues that Ulysses first lays out a negative utopianism following Homer’s Odyssey but in the course of the narrative tests out the logical necessity that precludes affirmative utopian thinking. Starting from episode 12, ‘Cyclops,’ the Homeric utopianism ‘by negation’ (De Jong 2001, 233-35) seems inadequate to erect a utopian project, for a negative dystopia need not amount to a utopia; the Joycean Ireland negates the Homeric dystopia without being a utopia either. Utopianism by negation proves exclusionary too, for a negative utopia is dystopian for the ones negated, like nationalistic Ireland is a dystopia for a Jew like the protagonist, Leopold Bloom. Bloom offers an alternative to negative thinking by envisioning a utopian state that affirms everyone. Climactically, in episode 18 ‘Penelope’, Molly Bloom answers ‘yes’ to the query ‘where’. This unsyntactical, absurd affirmation exposes the limits of imagination, as delineated by Adorno, since we cannot understand possible worlds that are ‘yes’ as a response to ‘where’. However, it also prefigures conceptual structures yet to come, structures that may build utopian worlds based on the affirmation ‘where one does want to live’. These conceptual mechanisms that underlie utopian world-making and are captured through grammatical structures are identified as ‘grammars of utopia’ and constitute the overarching theoretical project in which this paper is inscribed.

Panacea or Dangerous Practice: A Counterpoint to Hanisch's Argument for Prescriptive Theorizing

AbstractIn this paper we provide a counterpoint to the view that prescriptive theorizing reflects a viable means for enhancing the practical impact of management theorizing towards addressing some of the most pressing societal concerns and grand challenges of our times. To do so, we first contextualize the roots of prescriptive theorizing in management research, arguing that the approach developed by Hanisch is reflective of the wider ‘positive’ prescriptive turn in social science theorizing. Second, we problematize the presumptive basis upon which much prescriptive theorizing as well as related ideas around utopian thinking are based. In doing so, our broader aim is to draw attention to the bases upon which prescriptive claims are made and we specifically highlight the dangers of implementing decontextualized, overly simple and stylized prescriptions in the face of complex grand challenges. In contrast to prescriptive theorizing, we propose that the practical impact of management theory may rather be enhanced through a tempering of instrumental rationality with a deep(er) concern for phenomena and experience. We conclude the paper by offering a number of ways in which this can be done.

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones): Black Nationalist Utopian Thought in the 1960s

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones): Black Nationalist Utopian Thought in the 1960s

Towards a collaborative notion of Utopia

scopio Architecture, Art and Image publication corresponds to a novel encompassing focus and a renewed international team integrating the Editorial Team and Scientific Committee of this periodical publication. scopio AAI publication is now focused on the dissemination of the themes of Architecture, Art, Image (AAI), integrated into a dynamic information space called AAI 2 Lab linked to scopionetwork and AAI research group. The physical and online publication being innovative ensures the continuity of the scopio's original graphic identity and brand. An open access, annual, and research orientated publication that aims to offer critical, explorative and informative text capable of reaching an interdisciplinary audience, making it accessible to criticism and discussion around the universe of AAI, namely to debate / (re) think Architecture, Art and Image in contemporaneity. Scopio AAI will be governed annually by a major theme of interest and Utopia is the focus of the the first theme of Scopio AAI, which will challenge our understanding of this concept exploring ways to reanalyse the Utopian thinking within the complex societies of nowadays. (...)

“If the Kingdom be Ruled According to the Tao”: Politics as “Eastern Wisdom” in Aleister Crowley’s Reception of the Daodejing

Abstract The fascination with the “Eastern Wisdom” exhibited among esoteric movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is often understood as an interest in spirituality. Existing research has focused on how these movements took an interest in beliefs in doctrines like karma and reincarnation, as well as in practices of meditation and divination. Although this characterization is broadly correct, it is not the whole picture. This article explores a case where “Eastern Wisdom” was instead conceived in a way that explicitly included politics: Aleister Crowley’s interpretation of the instructions for government given in the Daodejing. During the early twentieth century the Daodejing was the focus of broad interest by sinologists, artists, and esoteric writers alike, among them Crowley. Although intensely engaged in divination and esoteric ritual practices, Crowley was also a utopian political thinker who wanted to see radical societal reform in line with his religious and political ideals. The article explores Crowley’s interpretation of the political aspects of the Daodejing and how he strove to interpret them in light of his own religious beliefs. It suggests that, far from being exclusively private and individualistic, the esoteric understanding of “Eastern Wisdom” could include elements like political theory and utopian thinking.

Imagine, predict or perform? Reclaiming the future in sociology beyond scientism and catastrophism

AbstractIn this article I examine and criticize some mainstream views of the future within scholarly debates, mainly in social science. The goal is to review the strategies sociology is following to include the future as a theme of its own reflections. Such strategies also reveal relevant aspects of the society in which they are developed. The main argument revolves around some tensions concerning the relationship of contemporary societies to their future. The key points can be summarized as follows: in contemporary complex societies, where change is believed to be the only constant, social science seems to have abandoned the future as a theme of its reflections, while at the same time prediction and forecast are increasingly necessary. Future studies are, therefore, mainly an enterprise for managers and engineers, taking place in either government or corporate environments and far from the academy. Why is this happening? And is it necessarily so? What does sociology know about "the future(s)? Could prediction still be the form of the argument sociology can make about the future? And if this cannot be, then what exactly is its possible contribution – if any? Are these embarrassing questions a reflection of the way things really are, or of a wrong attitude sociology has taken to future studies? The main thesis is that insofar as sociology still occupies the field of future studies, it is undergoing a process of hybridization, which leads to mix its representational and performative function in a new way, and that can possibly escape confusion with old and new forms of utopian thinking. Such a thesis is illustrated introducing one particular analytic tool deployed in social scientific oriented future studies, namely scenarios, and comparing its inherent logic with that of the morphogenetic approach to sociological research. I attempt to examine the rationale of such a tool, and how it can serve the purpose of sociological analysis, constituting some kind of reflexive morphogenesis of sociological theory of the future