Utopian Thinking Research Articles

From influencing school food to handling hate speech: Methods, areas, and limitations of active citizenship in Finnish social studies textbooks

Historically, education for active citizenship has not been a high priority in Finnish schools. In this discursive study of Finnish social studies textbooks for grades 4–6, we investigate how students are encouraged to practice active citizenship, where the focus of active citizenship lies, and how active citizenship is limited in antidemocratic ways. Referring to the theoretical discussion about democracy in education, we note a discursive focus on individual influencing and communication skills as methods for active citizenship education. We find that active citizenship focuses on students’ immediate surroundings, the school, and the local area as potential fields of influence. We note how antidemocratic threats to active citizenship are often portrayed with a focus on individual feelings and manners, not on understanding democratic structures and antidemocratic threats such as silencing voices through online hate speech. We welcome a discussion about how young students can become active citizens, by encouraging a more democratic classroom culture within social studies, thereby creating space for imagining alternative futures and utopian thinking.

“WHAT HAS POSTERITY EVER DONE FOR ME?”: FUTURE GENERATIONS, INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE, AND THE CHRONOPOLITICS OF DISTANT FUTURES

ABSTRACT“Future generations” play a key role in current political debates. In the context of the climate crisis especially, political controversies are often framed as moral problems of “intergenerational justice.” This article aims to historicize the use of the concept of “future generations” in modern political discourse and to uncover its long—and often ambivalent—history. Its main argument is that talking about “future generations” was part of an attempt to integrate (distant) futures into the political discourse of the time. The first part of the article outlines a theoretical perspective on the relationship between generations and temporalities. The second part focuses on how anticipating “future generations” became an important part of the history of utopian thinking and political planning in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially in the realm of demographic and economic discussions. The third part analyzes the emergence of “future ethics” and “intergenerational justice” as important political discourses in the 1970s. This part refers both to the academic debates about “future generations” and to the way political decision‐makers used the concept to legitimize their policies. The article argues that the concept of “future generations” should not be taken as an ethical principle that transcended the political debates of the present. Rather, it was itself the result of intense political controversies.

Time at Home: The October Revolution and Soviet Temporalities

AbstractThe October Revolution ushered in a radical, future‐orientated political agenda. Almost immediately, through the press, advice literature, activism and avant‐garde planning, a lively discourse on domestic life presented the home as a central site for building this ‘new epoch’. The home became the hub of a new and burgeoning Soviet temporality – a professed modern vision of time, which pitched the past against the future, embraced rational time discipline, pictured the world through a progress‐orientated teleology, and stressed mankind's ability to master time itself. While Marx famously refrained from outlining what communism would actually look like, the home and visions of the home provided a very immediate means of picturing the communist future – and how people would occupy it. As historians have started to note, the home became a temporal marker of difference between the self‐identified scourge of ‘Russian backwardness’ and the future‐orientated promise of Soviet communism. This was the difference between the fatalism and rigidity of old Russia and the intentionally disruptive mobilisation campaigns of the Soviet project. This article examines how visions of a ‘new way of life’ and modern utopian thinking on the home grounded a future‐orientated revolutionary ideology, making the promise of communism and new temporal understandings of the world tangible in the wake of 1917. But, crucially, drawing on the latest debates about time and temporalities, the article examines how different temporal modes can exist side by side in dynamic form – even in creative tension. Past and future temporalities, it posits, together formed radical Russia's vision of revolutionary time.

Specters of Utopia in Mary Barton

Abstract: This article offers a substantial reinterpretation of Mary Barton in terms of Robert Owen's ideas, especially as outlined in his early tract A New View of Society . The article contends that Gaskell's novel stages a significant reassessment of the transformative possibilities of nineteenth-century paternalism. It also suggests, drawing on the work of Jacques Derrida, that the reformist aspirations of a utopian thinker such as Owen can only be articulated "spectrally" in the context of Victorian class conflict: that is, by positing the kind of presence that only an irremediable absence can enable and register.

Social Design Dreaming: Everyday Speculations for Social Change

Racial justice activists tend to turn to science fiction to imagine better, freer worlds. Speculative futures in design are rarely fantasy-based. Design speculation relies more on unfamiliarity and exaggeration than fantasy to challenge assumptions and norms. This paper proposes that design, futuring, and utopian thinking can offer a new path to justice movements, and a new purpose for speculative design, to envision optimistic long-term possibilities based on realism. Designers, with their unique ability to ‘change existing situations into preferred ones,’ can build realistic and plausible visions of equitable, liberatory worlds. Such visions that amplify the missions of justice efforts can help enlist new supporters and motivate advocates through complex, disruptive change. 
 This article describes eight workshops structured to explore the value of imagining radically hopeful visions co-created through critically conscious collaborative futures. In each workshop, designers acted as facilitators to help foster solution-finding with participants from various racial justice projects in both community and academic organisations. Workshops introduced participants to the joy and strength of thinking about long-term futures. Still, their visions often did not last beyond the workshop. Only in later workshops, when design prompts provided new formats for evoking participants’ futures, did their visions become tangible and long-lasting. The results show that designers’ creative skills can complement and give shape to the deep knowledge of justice advocates.

1989: “Refolutions”, “Rebirths” and the Crisis of Utopias

"Having been seen, at first, as the foundation of a “rebirth”, both European and global, the “refolutions” of 1989 left a highly controversial legacy which is still subject of political memory clashes and a source of “cultural bipolarities”, but also of disillusionment and polarizations within multiple mnemonic communities. These contradictions, anchored in the ”traumatogenic changes” of the democratic transitions that engendered, at the end of the 90s, post-socialist nostalgia, are also related to a crisis of utopian thinking which characterized the moment 1989 itself and became a main feature of post–Cold War political-cultural paradigms, including the mnemonic ones, dominated by the traumatic legacy of the ”century of extremes”. Keywords: revolutions of 1989, political memory, social memory, utopia, post-socialist nostalgia "

Migrancy and utopia: the global network in Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange and Hamid’s Exit West

ABSTRACT This paper attends to the utopian imagination circulating in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017) and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange (1997). These texts exemplify the formal innovation assigned to migrancy fiction more generally, a genre characterised by its embrace of mobility in content as well as in form. Alongside migrancy novels, utopian fiction both maps and distorts the networks and infrastructures that generate wealth inequality on a global scale. But while previous studies have touched on the utopian implications to migration fiction, this paper elaborates on the affordances of placing these fields into full dialogue. To develop this last point, this paper draws from Mary Louise Pratt’s influential concept of the contact zone in order to acknowledge the different scales of utopian thinking within (and between) Tropic of Orange, which demarcates a specific utopian community, and Exit West, which imagines a global commons. Approaching these texts through the lens of the contact zone helps bring into focus how mundane technologies create inequality today but might be repurposed to radically remake society in the future.

15Theatre and Performance

Abstract It’s a cliché, of course, to open an annual review by pointing out how the texts under discussion reflect our contemporary moment. And none of the books reviewed here are modish responses to passing scholarly fads. All speak first and foremost to concerns located at the very heart of the theatre medium itself: the imaginative construction of alternative shared worlds, and the exploration of our hopes and fears around modes of interpersonal touch and intimacy. So, forgive me just one brief reflection on how it is surely no coincidence that the books that intervene most excitingly and meaningfully in the scholarly field this year are also those that speak to some of the most pressing anxieties and desires in the broader world as well, in the wake of pandemic contagion, the #MeToo movement, a cost-of-living crisis, and continued dystopic crises in both the academic industry and in national and global politics. The first section of this chapter, ‘Utopia’, reviews three monographs that discuss the intersections between theatre, concepts of utopia and utopian thinking: Siân Adiseshiah’s Utopian Drama: In Search of a Genre, Selina’s Busby’s Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia and Ryan Claycomb’s In the Lurch: Verbatim Theater and the Crisis of Democratic Deliberation. The second section, ‘Touch and Intimacy’, reviews two books that cast an eye on questions of touch and intimacy onstage, from a contemporary practice-based and historical scholarly perspective respectively: Supporting Staged Intimacy: A Practical Guide for Theatre Creatives, Managers, and Crew, co-authored by Alexis Black and Tina M. Newhauser, and Alex MacConochie’s Staging Touch in Shakespeare’s England.

McGahern

The creative kingdom of the writer of fiction is an imaginative space full of potential. There is no shortage of examples of such writing in the work of the late Irish writer John McGahern. This text seeks to link McGahern’s fictive world with notions of utopian thinking in how it can liberate the conscious from false notions of values and belonging that, in turn, affect the nature and quality of freedom of expression.

Strange Forms

Strange Forms

Exploring spiritual eco-humanism

This paper is a philosophical discussion about the link between utopianism and responsibility. It argues that our time demands a strong practice of political responsibility in both organizations and society based on what has been called ‘real utopianism’. It takes as a starting point Hans Jonas’ critique of utopianism. Keeping in mind the horrors of the Second World War this Jewish thinker disconnected the principle of responsibility from the idea of utopianism, and connected it to a ‘heuristics of fear’ – we should be careful with ‘wild’ new technologies, but also with new utopian perspectives. In a second step Jonas’ predecessors and utopian thinkers Martin Buber, Ernst Bloch and Ernest Callenbach are revisited. They show that a fully conceptualized idea of utopianism includes at least three dimensions of responsibility: subsistence, justice and spirituality. I then argue that if one digs deeper into the work of Jonas, it seems that the concept of responsibility in fact implies the courage to overcome a heuristics of fear. This paper therefore argues that there is no need to radically disjunct responsibility from utopianism and that the concept of responsibility actually opens a path to ‘real utopianism’. Such a concept of responsibility can best be supported by a confessionally neutral but nonetheless spiritual eco-humanist worldview that develops a new attitude towards nature, in which (eco)asceticism, morality and spirituality become intertwined.

Andrey Tarkovsky's Retrotopias and retro utopian thinking

In this article, the author offers his approach to the study of the phenomenon of retrotopic thinking (the orientation of utopian thinking in the past). The article is conditionally divided into two parts. In the first part, Andrei Tarkovsky's films are analyzed as a set of concrete examples of retrotopic thinking. At the same time, the author makes ideal-typical drawings, setting a number of parametric characteristics on the basis of which it is possible to separate some variants of retrotopic thinking from others. In the second part, the author extends the analysis of retrotopic thinking to the entire human history, showing its fullness with retrotopias. At the same time, the author analyzes all variants of utopian thinking: both retrotopias and protopias (the orientation of utopian thinking towards the future). The history of mankind, and especially the history of globalizing modernity, is viewed as a complex deployment of protopic and retrotopic projects.

Kritika kao osnova učenja odraslih zasnovanog na utopijskom mišljenju

Exploring the epistemological foundations of adult learning within utopian thinking and utopian practices presents a challenging task for current andragogical research. Utopia and adult learning are interconnected in multiple ways. Utopia represents a vision of an ideal or better society, where learning is always a constitutive element. By studying these visions, we enter the domain of critical pedagogy and futuristic studies of adult education. This paper aims to present the possibilities of developing utopian thinking as an approach to adult learning, where critique plays a key constitutive role. Critique not only opens up space for change but also contributes to a continuous process of formation within new networks of knowledge. Critique questions existing knowledge, while also contributing to the creation of the new. By envisioning the future, we not only discover and better understand the present, but also open up possibilities for new approaches to learning. Considering the relationship between utopia and critique in adult learning, we can justify the discussion about the creation of a utopian approach.

Imagining the Jubilee: Modern Jewish Utopias from the Inception of Zionism to the Existential Turn

The commandment to observe the Jubilee year, which appears in the final chapters of Leviticus, is a multifaceted riddle. The Talmud claims that observance of the Jubilee ceased with the expulsion of the Israelite tribes 2,700 years ago, implying a complete lack of oral traditions on the subject. However, despite its absence from Jewish practice and actual memory, the Jubilee played a central role in Jewish utopian thought on ownership, property, and the relationship with the Land of Israel. The rise of modern Zionism witnessed a flowering of utopian thinking inspired by the Jubilee. Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist thinkers offered modern interpretations of the Jubilee, intended to serve as the foundation of the model society they aimed to create. In recent decades, discussion of the Jubilee has become a battleground between liberal and conservative thinkers, who have attempted to frame the commandment as a mechanism of social and economic reform or as a means to strengthen private ownership respectively. This article addresses modern interpretations of the Jubilee from the early Zionist writers to the present, exploring the various ways in which Jubilee utopias have been employed as a source of inspiration for a newly constructed social and economic ethos. Following this analysis, I offer a new, existential interpretation of the Jubilee for the 21st century. I suggest a reading of the act of return to ancestral land every fifty years in the context of the global and virtual era, specifically drawing on the process described by Zygmunt Bauman (1998) as the great war of independence for space.

Gene Editing Technologies, Utopianism, and Disability Politics

Scholars have long speculated about what a future affected by gene editing technologies might hold. This article enters current debates over the future of gene editing and the place of disability within it. Specifically, I evaluate contemporary utopian thinking about gene editing found in two different schools of thought: transhumanism and critical disability studies, ultimately judging the latter to be richer and more politically promising than the former. If we take it as our goal to protect and promote future people’s autonomy interests, I argue that current political efforts should be directed toward modifying ableist environments rather than employing genetic technologies to avoid disability or enhance capacity. The article concludes by drawing from disability justice scholarship to make the case that the “right to an open future” should be understood as the “right to an accessible future,” one wherein society is “open” to people with diverse genetic traits and capacities.

Концепты "Время" и "Ускорение" как константы утопического типа сознания в сверхповести В. Хлебникова "Зангези"

The authors examine the concepts “Acceleration” and “Time” in the context of other constants of the utopian type of consciousness based on the material of the works Zangezi (1922), the poem Boards of Destiny (1922), as well as other poetic, dramatic works, treatises and articles by Velimir Khlebnikov (1885–1922), a futurist poet, a consistent “budetlyanin”, a unique, not fully understood and underestimated utopian thinker. The line-by-line analysis of metaphors and intertextual connections of Zangezi allows the authors to show Khlebnikov’s innovation in solving the main issue of utopia – achieving happiness and likening a person to God. According to the authors of this article, the poet’s innovation consists in a special interpretation of the analyzed concepts that fit into the general conceptual framework of utopia and that are objectified by techniques familiar to the utopian thought of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and developed in the context of the futuristic ideas of their time. The artistic integrity of Zangezi is achieved by the widest hypertext that Khlebnikov provides by using the literary method “zaum”. Meanings, ideas, symbols, images from the seemingly disordered text transform into a harmonious embodiment of the main idea of conquering time. Zaum is a code for hypertext, a symbolic canvas Khlebnikov draws through the cultural contexts of different eras and peoples. Zaum is needed to read the new utopian idea that previous generations uncovered to the prophetic poet – “shaman”. The cultural code Khlebnikov deciphered and presented in his final supersaga Zangezi does not “throw off the ship of modernity” the achievements of other cultures and generations, but unites them, forming a new universal timeless continuum, where time (past, present, future) remain, but the transience of life is not essential since a person can “walk” in time. He controls it completely and he has the ability to go to the past or the future, connect with the following or previous generations. Khlebnikov offers his own solution to the problem of the “siege of time, words and multiplicities”, his own breakthrough into the Future, more precisely, into all times – into a timeless continuum.

Utopian Thinking, Social Work, and Homelessness: Critiquing Ideas Regarding Welfare Dependence

ABSTRACT In this article social policy theorist Ruth Levitas’s utopian method is employed in critiquing and proposing alternative ways of thinking about and responding to homelessness in Australia. Ideas embedded in contemporary policy responses to homelessness are challenged regarding welfare dependence and homeless identities. Levitas’s method provides an important tool for social workers and social policy activists to rethink policy approaches to homelessness and confront considering neoliberal agendas emphasising individual responsibility and welfare dependency. IMPLICATIONS Homelessness is a major social issue in Australia and needs advocacy for social change. It is critical that social workers contribute to public debate and policy change that challenges dominant constructions of homeless people as welfare dependent. Utopian thinking offers an important tool for social workers to evaluate and critique dominant discourses regarding individualised and deficit-based discourses regarding homeless people.

Utopian Thinking or Business as Usual: Pondering Next Steps for SIGCAS

With the advent of a new year and the impending end of my term as SIGCAS Chair it seems just about the right time to share some thoughts on SIGCAS, its mission and where we all stand in relation to it. I'd love to hear your thoughts and reactions to this, either directly via email, or on the SIGCAS-Talk distribution list or our Discord server.

The charmed circle: identity in Utopia, unethical practices, and Augustine’s two cities

This article considers Utopia’s unethical practices alongside The City of God’s understanding of the earthly polity’s relationship to eschatology. In Augustine’s view, within the earthly city every person could potentially become a friend of the heavenly city in time, and the existing political situation must always be rendered partial and incomplete against the telos of eternity. These convictions stand in conspicuous contrast with Utopia. The Utopian system is in important ways founded on institutionalized practices which not only exclude non-Utopians (or ex-Utopians), but also habituate them to vice. Examining Utopia alongside The City of God illuminates how this ethical problem in Utopia is not just a matter of individual practices or institutions, but rather derives from a more fundamental metaphysical and theological outlook. Not only is Utopia invested in a Utopian/non-Utopian distinction; more significantly, this distinction has a tacit eschatological role, since Utopian thinking implies that degradation of one’s capacity for virtue decreases one’s potential to be saved.

Planning “the Future of the City” or Imagining “the City of the Future”? In Search of Sustainable Urban Utopianism in Katowice

In constantly expanding its fields of application, sustainable development is becoming the basic approach to planning and governing the twenty-first century city. This article examines sustainable urban development policies through the lens of utopian thinking and indicates the opposing scholarly interpretations of modern utopianism. On the one hand, this is approached as dreaming and fantasizing about the future; on the other, it is approached as well-calculated planning activities. More specifically, this article explores how the urban community in a post-socialist, post-industrial city faces the implementation of the challenge of a twenty-first-century sustainable development project. Using the example of the city of Katowice in southern Poland, the article examines three discourses of sustainable urban utopianism. It is first seen as strategic planning for a pursued better future; second, it is seen as an image of the city of the future; and, third, it is seen as a difficult-to-achieve vision for the city of the future in light of specific local barriers to development. Apart from Katowice’s successes in transforming its traditional industrial profile—based on coal mining—this study also draws attention to the successful construction of a new image for economic changes, urban design, and sustainable development, which has been confirmed by numerous recognitions at the national and international scale.