(Con)temporary utopian spaces

pp. 190-206

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

Abstract

While many have worn the utopian badge proudly, utopian fantasies have usually been considered just that: fanciful. Certainly, for Lewis Mumford (1962), building "castles in the sky" was an important task, and utopianism has long been seen as a driver of social and political change. But in an age of neoliberal ascendency that has seemingly vanquished ideological and utopian adversaries, utopianism is today more likely to be derided as naive and adolescent, except for when it is deemed unreservedly dangerous. To be fair, a long historical record supports suspicion of utopian projects. Many past and current utopias have hidden darker ambitions in lofty visions and promises; and others have achieved little. The price, however, can be a too restrictive interpretation, even wilful misreading, of utopianism. This makes it important to recover alternative meanings of utopia — of what it is as well as is not — and to re-articulate the kind of "transcendence" attributed to it.