Utopia in the Age of Globalization

Utopia in the Age of Globalization

Author: Robert T. Tally Jr.

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-02-26

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0230391907

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The idea of "Utopia" has made a comeback in the age of globalization, and the bewildering technological shifts and economic uncertainties of the present era call for novel forms of utopia. Tally argues that a new form of utopian discourse is needed for understanding, and moving beyond, the current world system.


Utopia in the Age of Survival

Utopia in the Age of Survival

Author: S. D. Chrostowska

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2021-10-19

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1503630005

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A pathbreaking exploration of the fate of utopia in our troubled times, this book shows how the historically intertwined endeavors of utopia and critique might be leveraged in response to humanity's looming existential challenges. Utopia in the Age of Survival makes the case that critical social theory needs to reinstate utopia as a speculative myth. At the same time the left must reassume utopia as an action-guiding hypothesis—that is, as something still possible. S. D. Chrostowska looks to the vibrant, visionary mid-century resurgence of embodied utopian longings and projections in Surrealism, the Situationist International, and critical theorists writing in their wake, reconstructing utopia's link to survival through to the earliest, most radical phase of the French environmental movement. Survival emerges as the organizing concept for a variety of democratic political forms that center the corporeality of desire in social movements contesting the expanding management of life by state institutions across the globe. Vigilant and timely, balancing fine-tuned analysis with broad historical overview to map the utopian impulse across contemporary cultural and political life, Chrostowska issues an urgent report on the vitality of utopia.


Planet Utopia

Planet Utopia

Author: Mark Featherstone

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1351815873

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The key figure of the capitalist utopia is the individual who is ultimately free. The capitalist’s ideal society is designed to protect this freedom. However, within Planet Utopia: Utopia, Dystopia, Globalisation, Featherstone argues that capitalist utopian vision, which is most clearly expressed in theories of global finance, is no longer sustainable today. This book concerns the status of utopian thinking in contemporary global society and the possibility of imagining alternative ways of living outside of capitalism. Using a range of sociological and philosophical theories to write the first intellectual history of the capitalist utopia in English, Featherstone provokes the reader into thinking about ways of moving beyond this model of organising social life through sociological modes of thought. Indeed, this enlightening volume seeks to show how utopian thinking about the way people should live has been progressively captured by capitalism with the result that it is difficult to imagine alternatives to capitalist society today. Presenting sociology and sociological thinking as a utopian alternative to the capitalist utopia, Planet Utopia will appeal to postgraduate and postdoctoral students interested in subjects including Sociology, Social Theory, Cultural Studies, Cultural Theory and Continental Philosophy.


Globalization and Utopia

Globalization and Utopia

Author: P. Hayden

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-03-12

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0230233600

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Taking aim at the belief in utopia's demise, this collection of original essays offers a new look at the vibrant renewal of utopianism emerging in response to the challenges of globalization. It consider questions of hope and transformation associated with the utopian desire for social change.


Utopia & Cosmopolis

Utopia & Cosmopolis

Author: Thomas Peyser

Publisher: New Americanists

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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A discussion of Henry James and other utopian writers (Charlotte Perkins, Gilman, Edward Bellamy and William Dean Howells) and how the commercial and territorial expansion of the U.S. prompted these utopians to imagine a universal culture standing at the


Purgatory and Utopia

Purgatory and Utopia

Author: Alicja Iwanska

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1351495364

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The conflict between a people's determination to preserve their socio-cultural identity and the aspiration toward technological progress and knowledge has become common in the age of globalization. One people that has remarkably kept a balance between tradition and progress are the Mazahuas of Central Mexico. Purgatory and Utopia, now available in paperback, describes how the Mazahuas have preserved their cultural identity and some of their ancient social institutions, while at the same time modifying their lifestyles, in a gradual, natural way.


Utopia

Utopia

Author: George Kateb

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-29

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1351300393

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Amid the twentieth century's seemingly overwhelming problems, some thinkers dared to envisage a world order governed by utopian proposals that would eliminate--or at least alleviate--the evils of society and secure positive advantages for all human beings. Others found this utopian optimism a hopeless fantasy and predicted a utopian order only repressiveness, boredom, and the impoverishment of human experience. The unique gathering of articles in Utopia vividly demonstrates the tension existing between utopian ideas and their proponents and the severe criticism of their adversaries. Among utopia's enthusiastic supporters, B. F. Skinner outlines the educational practices needed to sustain his concept of utopia, while Margaret Mead sets forth a bold defense of utopian vision in her article "Towards More Vivid Utopias." In active opposition to modern utopian idealism, Ralf Dahrendorf, the prominent German sociologist and politician, compares utopia with a cemetery and criticizes its fixed and uneventful life, and J. L. Talmon predicts that, since utopianism postulates absolute social cohesion, there is no escape from dictatorship in the utopian design. Still another alternative is offered by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who bases his futurist ideology on the trends of technology in the advanced countries of the world, especially the United States. He sees in the conscious application of technical-scientific rationality by an intellectual elite the method by which the promises of modern knowledge can be made good. Underscoring the fact that the utopian tradition can make us look at the real world with new eyes, George Kateb, the editor of Utopia, clarifies the terms of this long-standing debate and offers a thorough analysis of the "strong utopian impetus to save the world from as much of its confusion and disorder as possible." The work is an argument neither for utopian or anti-utopian visions. Rather it shows the possibilities of political norms in advancing the human condition in open societies.


Utopian Thought in the Western World

Utopian Thought in the Western World

Author: Frank Edward Manuel

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1979-10-31

Total Pages: 907

ISBN-13: 0674931858

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The authors have structured five centuries of utopian invention by identifying successive constellations, groups of thinkers joined by common social and moral concerns. Within this framework they analyze individual writings, in the context of the author's life and of the socio-economic, religious, and political exigencies of his time.