Introduction

reflections on the demise and renewal of utopia in a global age

pp. 1-9

in: Patrick Hayden, Chamsy el-Ojeili, Globalization and utopia, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

How should human communities — and ultimately, perhaps, the community of humanity — be created anew, in the sense of "anticipating" and imagining "that which does not yet exist" (Deleuze, 1994, p. 147)? This question lies at the heart of utopianism. To be utopian, we suggest, is the stuff of politics, and it first involves subjecting the politics of the present to critique. Secondly, it involves imagining human communities that do not yet exist and, thirdly, it involves thinking and acting so as to prevent the foreclosure of political possibilities in the present and future. The perspective adopted in this book is that the question of how to anticipate and imagine communities that "do not yet exist" animates many critical socio-political engagements with contemporary globalization.