Utopianism:AVeryShortIntroduction

GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP

OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.

ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,andeducationbypublishingworldwidein

OxfordNewYork

AucklandCapeTownDaresSalaamHongKongKarachiKualaLumpurMadridMelbourneMexicoCityNairobi

NewDelhiShanghaiTaipeiToronto

Withofficesin

ArgentinaAustriaBrazilChileCzechRepublicFranceGreeceGuatemalaHungaryItalyJapanPolandPortugalSingaporeSouthKoreaSwitzerlandThailandTurkeyUkraineVietnam

OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress

intheUKandincertainothercountries

PublishedintheUnitedStates

byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork

©LymanTowerSargent2010

ThemoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenassertedDatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)

Firstpublished2010

Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,

storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,

orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate

reprographicsrightsorganization.EnquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,

OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove

Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcoverandyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer

BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData

Dataavailable

LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData

Dataavailable

TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India

PrintedinGreatBritainbyAshfordColourPressLtd,Gosport,Hampshire

ISBN978-0-19-957340-0

13579108642

VeryShortIntroductionsavailablenow:

ADVERTISING•WinstonFletcher

AFRICANHISTORY•JohnParkerandRichardRathbone

AGNOSTICISM•RobinLePoidevin

AMERICANPOLITICALPARTIESANDELECTIONS•L.SandyMaisel

THEAMERICANPRESIDENCY•CharlesO.Jones

ANARCHISM•ColinWard

ANCIENTEGYPT•IanShaw

ANCIENTPHILOSOPHY•JuliaAnnas

ANCIENTWARFARE•HarrySidebottom

ANGLICANISM•MarkChapman

THEANGLO-SAXONAGE•JohnBlair

ANIMALRIGHTS•DavidDeGrazia

ANTISEMITISM•StevenBeller

THEAPOCRYPHALGOSPELS•PaulFoster

ARCHAEOLOGY•PaulBahn

ARCHITECTURE•AndrewBallantyne

ARISTOCRACY•WilliamDoyle

ARISTOTLE•JonathanBarnes

ARTHISTORY•DanaArnold

ARTTHEORY•CynthiaFreeland

ATHEISM•JulianBaggini

AUGUSTINE•HenryChadwick

AUTISM•UtaFrith

BARTHES•JonathanCuller

BESTSELLERS•JohnSutherland

THEBIBLE•JohnRiches

BIBLICALARCHEOLOGY•EricH.Cline

BIOGRAPHY•HermioneLee

THEBOOKOFMORMON•TerrylGivens

THEBRAIN•MichaelO’Shea

BRITISHPOLITICS•AnthonyWright

BUDDHA•MichaelCarrithers

BUDDHISM•DamienKeown

BUDDHISTETHICS•DamienKeown

CAPITALISM•JamesFulcher

CATHOLICISM•GeraldO’Collins

THECELTS•BarryCunliffe

CHAOS•LeonardSmith

CHOICETHEORY•MichaelAllingham

CHRISTIANART•BethWilliamson

CHRISTIANETHICS•D.StephenLong

CHRISTIANITY•LindaWoodhead

CITIZENSHIP•RichardBellamy

CLASSICALMYTHOLOGY•HelenMorales

CLASSICS•MaryBeardandJohnHenderson

CLAUSEWITZ•MichaelHoward

THECOLDWAR•RobertMcMahon

COMMUNISM•LeslieHolmes

CONSCIOUSNESS•SusanBlackmore

CONTEMPORARYART•JulianStallabrass

CONTINENTALPHILOSOPHY•SimonCritchley

COSMOLOGY•PeterColes

THECRUSADES•ChristopherTyerman

CRYPTOGRAPHY•FredPiperandSeanMurphy

DADAANDSURREALISM•DavidHopkins

DARWIN•JonathanHoward

THEDEADSEASCROLLS•TimothyLim

DEMOCRACY•BernardCrick

DESCARTES•TomSorell

DESERTS•NickMiddleton

DESIGN•JohnHeskett

DINOSAURS•DavidNorman

DIPLOMACY•JosephM.Siracusa

DOCUMENTARYFILM•PatriciaAufderheide

DREAMING•J.AllanHobson

DRUGS•LeslieIversen

DRUIDS•BarryCunliffe

THEEARTH•MartinRedfern

ECONOMICS•ParthaDasgupta

EGYPTIANMYTH•GeraldinePinch

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURYBRITAIN•PaulLangford

THEELEMENTS•PhilipBall

EMOTION•DylanEvans

EMPIRE•StephenHowe

ENGELS•TerrellCarver

ENGLISHLITERATURE•JonathanBate

EPIDEMIOLOGY•RoldolfoSaracci

ETHICS•SimonBlackburn

THEEUROPEANUNION•JohnPinderandSimonUsherwood

EVOLUTION•BrianandDeborahCharlesworth

EXISTENTIALISM•ThomasFlynn

FASCISM•KevinPassmore

FASHION•RebeccaArnold

FEMINISM•MargaretWalters

FILMMUSIC•KathrynKalinak

THEFIRSTWORLDWAR•MichaelHoward

FORENSICPSYCHOLOGY•DavidCanter

FORENSICSCIENCE•JimFraser

FOSSILS•KeithThomson

FOUCAULT•GaryGutting

FREESPEECH•NigelWarburton

FREEWILL•ThomasPink

FRENCHLITERATURE•JohnD.Lyons

THEFRENCHREVOLUTION•WilliamDoyle

FREUD•AnthonyStorr

FUNDAMENTALISM•MaliseRuthven

GALAXIES•JohnGribbin

GALILEO•StillmanDrake

GAMETHEORY•KenBinmore

GANDHI•BhikhuParekh

GEOGRAPHY•JohnMatthewsandDavidHerbert

GEOPOLITICS•KlausDodds

GERMANLITERATURE•NicholasBoyle

GERMANPHILOSOPHY•AndrewBowie

GLOBALCATASTROPHES•BillMcGuire

GLOBALWARMING•MarkMaslin

GLOBALIZATION•ManfredSteger

THEGREATDEPRESSIONANDTHENEWDEAL•EricRauchway

HABERMAS•JamesGordonFinlayson

HEGEL•PeterSinger

HEIDEGGER•MichaelInwood

HIEROGLYPHS•PenelopeWilson

HINDUISM•KimKnott

HISTORY•JohnH.Arnold

THEHISTORYOFASTRONOMY•MichaelHoskin

THEHISTORYOFLIFE•MichaelBenton

THEHISTORYOFMEDICINE•WilliamBynum

THEHISTORYOFTIME•LeofrancHolford-Strevens

HIV/AIDS•AlanWhiteside

HOBBES•RichardTuck

HUMANEVOLUTION•BernardWood

HUMANRIGHTS•AndrewClapham

HUME•A.J.Ayer

IDEOLOGY•MichaelFreeden

INDIANPHILOSOPHY•SueHamilton

INFORMATION•LucianoFloridi

INNOVATION•MarkDodgsonandDavidGann

INTELLIGENCE•IanJ.Deary

INTERNATIONALMIGRATION•KhalidKoser

INTERNATIONALRELATIONS•PaulWilkinson

ISLAM•MaliseRuthven

ISLAMICHISTORY•AdamSilverstein

JOURNALISM•IanHargreaves

JUDAISM•NormanSolomon

JUNG•AnthonyStevens

KABBALAH•JosephDan

KAFKA•RitchieRobertson

KANT•RogerScruton

KEYNES•RobertSkidelsky

KIERKEGAARD•PatrickGardiner

THEKORAN•MichaelCook

LANDSCAPESANDCEOMORPHOLOGY•AndrewGoudieandHeatherViles

LAW•RaymondWacks

THELAWSOFTHERMODYNAMICS•PeterAtkins

LEADERSHIP•KethGrint

LINCOLN•AllenC.Guelzo

LINGUISTICS•PeterMatthews

LITERARYTHEORY•JonathanCuller

LOCKE•JohnDunn

LOGIC•GrahamPriest

MACHIAVELLI•QuentinSkinner

MARTINLUTHER•ScottH.Hendrix

THEMARQUISDESADE•JohnPhillips

MARX•PeterSinger

MATHEMATICS•TimothyGowers

THEMEANINGOFLIFE•TerryEagleton

MEDICALETHICS•TonyHope

MEDIEVALBRITAIN•JohnGillinghamandRalphA.Griffiths

MEMORY•JonathanK.Foster

MICHAELFARADAY•FrankA.J.L.James

MODERNART•DavidCottington

MODERNCHINA•RanaMitter

MODERNIRELAND•SeniaPaseta

MODERNJAPAN•ChristopherGoto-Jones

MODERNISM•ChristopherButler

MOLECULES•PhilipBall

MORMONISM•RichardLymanBushman

MUSIC•NicholasCook

MYTH•RobertA.Segal

NATIONALISM•StevenGrosby

NELSONMANDELA•EllekeBoehmer

NEOLIBERALISM•ManfredStegerandRaviRoy

THENEWTESTAMENT•LukeTimothyJohnson

THENEWTESTAMENTASLITERATURE•KyleKeefer

NEWTON•RobertIliffe

NIETZSCHE•MichaelTanner

NINETEENTH-CENTURYBRITAIN•ChristopherHarvieandH.C.G.Matthew

THENORMANCONQUEST•GeorgeGarnett

NORTHERNIRELAND•MarcMulholland

NOTHING•FrankClose

NUCLEARWEAPONS•JosephM.Siracusa

THEOLDTESTAMENT•MichaelD.Coogan

PARTICLEPHYSICS•FrankClose

PAUL•E.P.Sanders

PENTECOSTALISM•WilliamK.Kay

PHILOSOPHY•EdwardCraig

PHILOSOPHYOFLAW•RaymondWacks

PHILOSOPHYOFSCIENCE•SamirOkasha

PHOTOGRAPHY•SteveEdwards

PLANETS•DavidA.Rothery

PLATO•JuliaAnnas

POLITICALPHILOSOPHY•DavidMiller

POLITICS•KennethMinogue

POSTCOLONIALISM•RobertYoung

POSTMODERNISM•ChristopherButler

POSTSTRUCTURALISM•CatherineBelsey

PREHISTORY•ChrisGosden

PRESOCRATICPHILOSOPHY•CatherineOsborne

PRIVACY•RaymondWacks

PROGRESSIVISM•WalterNugent

PSYCHIATRY•TomBurns

PSYCHOLOGY•GillianButlerandFredaMcManus

PURITANISM•FrancisJ.Bremer

THEQUAKERS•PinkDandelion

QUANTUMTHEORY•JohnPolkinghorne

RACISM•AliRattansi

THEREAGANREVOLUTION•GilTroy

THEREFORMATION•PeterMarshall

RELATIVITY•RussellStannard

RELIGIONINAMERICA•TimothyBeal

THERENAISSANCE•JerryBrotton

RENAISSANCEART•GeraldineA.Johnson

ROMANBRITAIN•PeterSalway

THEROMANEMPIRE•ChristopherKelly

ROMANTICISM•MichaelFerber

ROUSSEAU•RobertWokler

RUSSELL•A.C.Grayling

RUSSIANLITERATURE•CatrionaKelly

THERUSSIANREVOLUTION•S.A.Smith

SCHIZOPHRENIA•ChrisFrithandEveJohnstone

SCHOPENHAUER•ChristopherJanaway

SCIENCEANDRELIGION•ThomasDixon

SCOTLAND•RabHouston

SEXUALITY•VéroniqueMottier

SHAKESPEARE•GermaineGreer

SIKHISM•EleanorNesbitt

SOCIALANDCULTURALANTHROPOLOGY•JohnMonaghanandPeterJust

SOCIALISM•MichaelNewman

SOCIOLOGY•SteveBruce

SOCRATES•C.C.W.Taylor

THESOVIETUNION•StephenLovell

THESPANISHCIVILWAR•HelenGraham

SPANISHLITERATURE•JoLabanyi

SPINOZA•RogerScruton

STATISTICS•DavidJ.Hand

STUARTBRITAIN•JohnMorrill

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY•StephenBlundell

TERRORISM•CharlesTownshend

THEOLOGY•DavidF.Ford

THOMASAQUINAS•FergusKerr

TOCQUEVILLE•HarveyC.Mansfield

TRAGEDY•AdrianPoole

THETUDORS•JohnGuy

TWENTIETH-CENTURYBRITAIN•KennethO.Morgan

THEUNITEDNATIONS•JussiM.Hanhimäki

THEU.S.CONCRESS•DonaldA.Ritchie

UTOPIANISM•LymanTowerSargent

THEVIKINGS•JulianRichards

WITCHCRAFT•MalcolmGaskill

WITTGENSTEIN•A.C.Grayling

WORLDMUSIC•PhilipBohlman

THEWORLDTRADEORGANIZATION•AmritaNarlikar

WRITINGANDSCRIPT•AndrewRobinson

AVAILABLESOON:

LATEANTIQUITY•GillianClark

MUHAMMAD•JonathanA.Brown

GENIUS•AndrewRobinson

NUMBERS•PeterM.Higgins

ORGANIZATIONS•MaryJoHatch

VERYSHORTINTRODUCTIONS

VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyonewanting a stimulating and accessibleway in toanewsubject.Theyarewrittenbyexperts,andhavebeenpublished inmorethan25languagesworldwide.

The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history,philosophy,religion,science,andthehumanities.TheVSILibrarynowcontainsover200volumes-a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indianphilosophy to conceptual art and cosmology-and will continue to grow to a library ofaround300titles.

VERYSHORTINTRODUCTIONSAVAILABLENOW

Formoreinformationvisitourwebsitewww.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/

UTOPIANISM

AVeryShortIntroduction

LymanTowerSargent

ToEvan,Jennifer,Ian,andKieran

Contents

Listofillustrations

Introduction

1Goodplacesandbadplaces

2Utopianpractice

3Indigenous,colonial,andpostcolonialutopianism

4Utopianisminothertraditions

5UtopianisminChristiantraditions

6Utopianismandpoliticaltheory

7Utopiaandideology

Conclusion

References

Furtherreading

Index

Listofillustrations

1ThomasMore

FrickCollection,NewYork.TheYorckProject,DirectMedia/Wikipedia

2Frontispieceto1518editionofMore’sUtopia,showingmapofUtopia

3PieterBreugheltheElder,LandofCockaigne(1567)

AltePinakothek,Munich.©TopFoto

4Contemporarymonastery,oftheBenedictinecommunity,StLouis,Missouri

©G.E.KidderSmith/Corbis

5ShakermeetinghouseatCanterbury,NewHampshire,withseparatedoorsformenandwomen

ReproducedwithpermissionfromDonaldE.Janzen

6NewLanark,Scotland

NewLanarkTrust

7DropCity,intentionalcommunityestablishedinColoradointhemid-1960s

©Iwasaki/TimeandLifePictures/GettyImages

8TheDeclarationofIndependence

USNationalArchives

9ConfuciuspresentingtheyoungGautamaBuddhatoLaozi

Wikimedia

10JapaneseZengardenofstones

©Eightfish/TheImageBank/GettyImages

11ChinuaAchebe

ChinuaAchebe

12HareKrishnagroup

©AlanDavidson/EveningStandard/GettyImages

13EdwardHicks,ThePeaceableKingdom(1834)

MuseumofFineArts,Houston,Texas.©TheGrangerCollection/TopFoto

14NewJerusalemdescendingonEarth,illustrationfroma14th-centurytapestry

Wikimedia

15KarlPopper

©TheGrangerCollection/TopFoto

16ErnstBloch

©Keystone/GettyImages

17KarlMannheim

©NationalPortraitGallery

18PaulRicoeur

©PelletierMicheline/CorbisSygma

Introduction

Dreamsarethefireinus.

(MargePiercy)

AmapoftheworldthatdoesnotincludeUtopiaisnotworthevenglancingat,foritleaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And whenHumanitylandsthere,itlooksout,and,seeingabettercountry,setssail.Progressistherealizationofutopias.

(OscarWilde)

Thelastthingwereallyneedismoreutopianvisions.

(ImmanuelWallerstein)

Sothisisutopia,Isit?Well–Ibegyourpardon;IthoughtitwasHell

(MaxBeerbohm)

AnacreinMiddlesexisbetterthanaprincipalityinUtopia.Thesmallestactualgoodisbetterthanthemostmagnificentpromisesofimpossibilities.

(ThomasBabingtonMacauley)

Les utopies ne sont souvent que des verités prématurées. [Utopias are often onlyprematuretruths.]

(AlphonseMarieLouisdePratdeLamartine)

Theword‘utopia’wascoinedbyThomasMore(1478–1535)asthenameoftheimaginarycountryhedescribedinhisshort1516bookwritteninLatinandpublishedasLibellusvereaureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo reip[ublicae] statu, deq[ue] nouaInsula Vtopia (Concerning the Best State of a Commonwealth and the New Island ofUtopia. A Truly Golden Handbook No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining), and nowknownasUtopia.ThewordisbasedontheGreektoposmeaningplaceorwhere,and‘u’fromtheprefix‘ou’meaningnoornot.Butin‘SixLinesontheIslandofUtopia’,Moregives the reader a poem that callsUtopia ‘Eutopia’ (HappyLand, or good place).As aresult,theword‘utopia’,whichsimplymeansnoplaceornowhere,hascometorefertoanon-existentgoodplace.

Whilemosteducatedpeopleinthe16thcenturyreadGreekandLatin,theword‘utopia’quicklyenteredotherEuropean languages,with thebookbeingpublished inGerman in1524,Italianin1548,andFrenchin1550.BecauseMoreopposedtranslationintoEnglish,thebookwasnotavailableinEnglishuntil1551,whenitwastranslatedbyhisson-in-law.

InUtopia,Moredepictedashipdiscoveringanunknownisland,whichhasestablishedasocietybasedonfar-reachingequalitybutunder theauthorityofwise,elderlymen.It ishierarchicalandpatriarchal;ithasverystrictlawswithharshpunishments;anditprovidesamuchbetterlifeforitscitizensthanwasavailabletothecitizensofEnglandatthetime.These are the characteristics of a utopia. They tell stories about good (and later bad)places, representing themas if theywere real.Thus theyshowpeoplegoingabout theireverydaylivesanddepictmarriageandthefamily,education,meals,work,andthelike,aswellasthepoliticalandeconomicsystems.Itisthisshowingofeverydaylifetransformedthat characterizes a utopia, and utopianism is about just that transformation of theeveryday.

1.ThomasMore(1478–1535)wasanEnglishlawyer,politician,andauthorrememberedasaprominentRenaissancehumanistandanopponentofthe

ProtestantReformation.HewasknightedbyHenryVIIIforhisservicestothecrown,andexecutedforrefusingtogivehisoathsupportingHenryVIIIasheadofthechurchinEngland.HewascanonizedbytheRomanCatholicChurchin1935.HismostfamousbookwashisUtopia(1516).ThisfamousportraitofMorewas

paintedbyHansHolbeintheYounger(c.1498–1543)in1527

While theword ‘utopia’wascoinedbyMore, the ideaalreadyhada longandcomplexhistory.Utopias have been discovered thatwerewrittenwell beforeMore invented theword, and new words have been added to describe different types of utopias, such as‘dystopia’meaningbadplace,which,asfarasweknow,wasfirstusedin1747byHenryLewisYounge(b.1694)inhisUtopia:or,Apollo’sGoldenDaysandhasbecomestandardusage.Andtocallsomething‘utopian’has,fromveryearlyon,beenawayofdismissingitasunrealistic.

Peoplehavealwaysbeendissatisfiedwith theconditionsof their livesandhavecreatedvisionsofabetterandlongerlifeandhopedforacontinuedandimprovedexistenceafterdeath.Andat somepoint, someworriedabout thepossibilityofaworseexistenceafterdeath, thinking that however bad this life was, it could be worse. Thus, the first greatdivisioninutopianism,betweenthebetterandtheworse,emergedveryearlyon.

Wecanneverknowwhensomeonefirstdreamedofabetter lifebutmust relyonwhendifferentindividualsindifferentculturesfirstwrotedownaversionthathassurvived,andsuchvisionsoccurintheearliestwrittenrecordswehave,suchasaSumerianclaytabletfrom 2000BCE. The earliest utopiaswere very like dreams, completely out of humancontrol,somethingthatwouldcomeaboutnaturallyorbecausesomegodwilledit.

Allutopiasaskquestions.Theyaskwhetherornotthewaywelivecouldbeimprovedandanswer that itcould.Mostutopiascompare life in thepresentand life in theutopiaandpointoutwhatiswrongwiththewaywenowlive,thussuggestingwhatneedstobedonetoimprovethings.

As with most topics, there are definitional disagreements. One issue that regularlyconfusespeople stems from the failure tomake thedistinctionbetweenutopianismasageneralcategoryandtheutopiaasaliterarygenre.Thus,utopianismreferstothedreamsandnightmares thatconcern theways inwhichgroupsofpeoplearrange their livesandwhichusuallyenvisiona radicallydifferent society from theone inwhich thedreamerslive. And utopianism, unlike much social theory, focuses on everyday life as well asmattersconcernedwitheconomic,political,andsocialquestions.

The rangeof theword canbe seen in thedescriptionby thePolishphilosopherLeszekKolakowski(1927–2009)oftheprocessbywhichawordthat

emerged as an artificially concocted proper name has acquired, in the last twocenturies,asensesoextendedthatitrefersnotonlytoaliterarygenrebuttoawayofthinking, to a mentality, to a philosophical attitude, and is being employed indepictingculturalphenomenagoingbackintoantiquity.

Here Kolakowski demonstrates the complexity of utopianism as it has evolved. I havecalledutopianism ‘socialdreaming’.The sociologistRuthLevitas (b.1949)calls it ‘thedesireforabetterwayofbeing’,withtheutopiaasanaspectofthe‘educationofdesire’.WithinthesebroadcategoriesarewhatIcall‘thethreefacesofutopianism’–theliteraryutopia,utopianpractice,andutopiansocial theory.And,as thequotationsat theheadofthechaptermakeclear,thewordhascometomeandifferentthingstodifferentpeople.

Scholarstodaygenerallyuseoneoftwoquitesimilardefinitionsfortheliteraryutopia:thefirstistheliterarytheoristDarkoSuvin’s(b.1930),thesecondmine:

Theverbalconstructionofaparticularquasi-humancommunitywheresociopoliticalinstitutions, norms and individual relationships are organised according to a moreperfect principle than in the author’s community, this construction being based onestrangementarisingoutofanalternativehistoricalhypothesis.

Anon-existentsocietydescribedinconsiderabledetailandnormallylocatedintimeandspace.Instandardusageutopiaisusedbothasdefinedhereandasanequivalentfor eutopia or a non-existent society described in considerable detail and normallylocatedintimeandspacethattheauthorintendedacontemporaneousreadertoviewasconsiderablybetterthanthesocietyinwhichthatreaderlived.

Sincewritersofutopiaskeepinventingnewformsforthepresentationoftheirideas,anydefinitionmusthave somewhatporousboundaries, andcontemporaryutopiasdonot alllook likewhatwepreviouslycalledautopia. Inparticular, theyaremorecomplex, lesscertainoftheirproposals,andintendedforflawedhumanity.

Utopian practice includes what are now most often called intentional communities, orcommunes, butwereonce calledbymanyother things, includingutopian communities,utopianexperiments,andpracticalutopias.Here, there isnoagreed-upondefinition,butmanyscholarsusemine,oftenwithminorvariations,whichstatesthat

anintentionalcommunityisagroupoffiveormoreadultsandtheirchildren,ifany,whocomefrommorethanonenuclearfamilyandwhohavechosentolivetogethertoenhancetheirsharedvaluesorforsomeothermutuallyagreeduponpurpose.

Atonetime,utopianpracticewasgenerallylimitedtosuchcommunities,butbecausetheword ‘utopia’ is now used as a label for many types of social and political activityintendedtobringaboutabettersocietyand,insomecases,personaltransformation,itisabroadercategorythanitusedtobe.Andallutopianpracticeisabouttheactualratherthanthe fictional transformation of the everyday. People joining intentional communitieschoosetoexperimentwiththeirownlives,asdo,indifferentways,thosewhoparticipateinotherformsofutopianpractice.

Utopiansocial theory includes:utopiaasamethodofanalysis; the relationshipbetween

utopia and ideology firstoutlinedby the social theoristKarlMannheim (1893–1947) in1929andusedbyothers invariousways since then; theways inwhichutopianismhasbeenusedtoexplainsocialchangebythinkersliketheGermanMarxistphilosopherErnstBloch (1885–1977)and theDutchsociologistFrederickL.Polak (1907–85); the roleofutopianism in religion, particularly in Christian theology, in which it has been seen asvariously heretical and essential; the role of utopianism in colonialism andpostcolonialism; and the debates between globalizers and anti-globalizers. All of theseapproachesareconsideredinthisbook.

Utopianism and intentional communities are complex phenomena with long historiesoccurring inmanydifferent settings.Asa result, theydiffer radically from time to timeandplace toplace.Definitionat a levelofgeneralization thatwouldcaptureeverythingmaybeausefulstartingpointbutwouldtelluslittleabouttheactualphenomenaastheyoccur.Thusweneed to characterize thevarious sub-categories appropriately so thatweboth capture the connections and recognize the differences. And in particular, anydiscussionof intentionalcommunitiesmustbeaware that everycommunityhas itsownlifecyclebeginningwithvisionsandpre-planningtobirth,growth,maturation,and,often,death,withdeathpossibleatanypointinacommunity’slife.

And there can be fundamental disagreements over what constitutes a good place. Theclassic20th-centurycaseispsychologistB.F.Skinner’s(1904–90)WaldenTwo(1948),anovel describing a small community that had been established by a behaviouralpsychologist, which many saw as clearly a good place and even a guide to the idealintentionalcommunity.Somecommunitieswerefoundedonthismodelandsomeofthosestillexist.Othersreadthenovelasapictureofatotalitariansociety.Andcommunitiesareperceiveddifferentlybythoseobservingthemfromtheoutsideandthoselivinginthem,and such perceptions change as the communities and the people change. For example,intentional communities are often seen as wonderful places to be a child and terribleplacestobeateenager.

Literaryutopiashaveatleastsixpurposes,althoughtheyarenotnecessarilyseparable.Autopia can be simply a fantasy, it can be a description of a desirable or an undesirablesociety, an extrapolation, a warning, an alternative to the present, or a model to beachieved.Andtheintentionalcommunityasutopiaaddsaseventhpurpose,todemonstratethatlivingabetterlifeispossibleinthehereandnow.Theutopianviewshumanityanditsfuturewith either hope or alarm. If viewedwith hope, the result is usually a utopia. Ifviewed with alarm, the result is usually a dystopia. But basically, utopianism is aphilosophyofhope,anditischaracterizedbythetransformationofgeneralizedhopeintoadescriptionofanon-existentsociety.Ofcourse,hopecanoftenbenothingmorethanarathernaivewish-fulfilment,suchasinsomefairytales(albeitmostfairytalesturnintodystopias if carefully analysed).On the other hand, hope is essential to any attempt tochange society for the better. But this raises the possibility of someone attempting toimposetheirideaofwhatconstitutesadesirablefutureonotherswhorejectit.Utopiansarealwaysfacedwiththisdilemmawhentheyattempttomovetheirdreamtoreality–istheir dream compatible with the imposition of their dream; can freedom be achievedthroughunfreedom,orequalitythroughinequality?

Therearegoodreasonsforboth thenegativeand thepositiveevaluationsofutopianism

reflected in the quotations at the beginning of this introduction, and those reasons areexploredthroughoutthebook.Inthe20thcentury,negativeevaluationswerestrongasaresultofattemptstoimposeaspecificversionofthegoodlife,particularlyCommunisminthe Soviet Union, China, and elsewhere, but also including National Socialism inGermany and the Taliban version of Islamism in Afghanistan. Others have seenutopianismpositivelyastheprimarymeansofcounteringsuchattempts.

Whileaimingatacomprehensiveandbalancedpresentation,Imakeanargumenthere.Initsbroadestoutline, thatargument is thatutopianismisessentialfor the improvementofthe human condition, and in this sense opponents of utopianism are both wrong andpotentiallydangerous.ButIalsoarguethatifusedwrongly,andithasbeen,utopianismisitselfdangerous,andinthissensesupportersofutopianismarebothwrongandpotentiallydangerous. Therefore, the conclusion both explores and attempts to rectify thecontradictorynatureofutopianism.

Chapter1Goodplacesandbadplaces

Thetwotraditions:utopiabeforeUtopia

Peace,firstofall,wasasreadilyavailableaswashing-water.Theearthdidn’tproducefear or diseases. Instead,what they needed appeared spontaneously, because everytorrent-gullyflowedwithwine,andbarley-cakesfoughtwithloavesofbreadaroundpeople’smouths,begging themtogulpdown thewhitestones, if theywouldbesokind.

(Teleclides,Amphictyonies)

They did notmarrywives, but had theirwomen in common: the children so bornwerebroughtupincommonandtreatedwithequalaffectionbyall.Whiletheywereinfantsthewomenwhosuckledthemoftenexchangedtheircharges,sothateventhemotherscouldnotrecognisetheirownchildren:consequentlytherewasnojealousyamongthem,andtheyalwayslivedwithoutanyquarrels,countingconcordthechiefofallblessings.

(Iambulus,Heliopolis)

While theword ‘utopia’was coinedbyThomasMore in1516 and agenreof literaturedevelopedfromhisbook,theideaofutopiaismucholder.ThetwoquotationsaboveandIllustrations2and3reflect twoverydifferentversionsof thegood life.Onefocusesonpleasure, and bodily pleasure in particular, with plenty of food and drink at its centre,with, in some versions, lots of readily available sex. The other focuses on socialorganization.ThefirstisfantasyandisbroughtintobeingbyNature,God,orthegods;thesecond is presented realistically and is brought about by human beings using theirintelligence.Bothversionsareancientandbothcontinuetoday.Forsome,onlythesecondqualifies as a utopia, but others see the first as an important current in the river that isutopia.

2.Thefrontispiecetothe1518editionofThomasMore’sUtopiaisawoodcutby

AmbrosiusHolbien(c.1494-c.1519)anddepictsthecountryofUtopia

3.PieterBreugheltheElder’s(c.1525–69)paintingoftheLandofCockaigne

(1567)depictstheexcessofdrinkandfoodthatwouldbepossibleinCockaigne,alandofplentythatmanytalessaycanonlybereachedbythepoor

The first has been called ‘the utopia of escape’ and ‘the body utopia’, and there is no

culturewithout suchutopias. In the traditions thatmakeup itshistory in theWest, it isfoundinthebiblicalEden,GreekandRomanstoriesoftheearthlyparadiseandtheideaofagoldenraceorageinthepast,andtheIrish‘VisionofMacConglinne’.Itmovesintothe‘worldturnedupsidedown’traditionwithSaturnalia,theFeastofFools,Cockaigne,andearly versions of Carnival, all of which temporarily place the poor and oppressed inpositionsofpowerandtheirsupposedsuperiorsunderthemforadayoraweek.Ittendstobecreatedanewandre-emergeinsuppressedgroupsandintimesofeconomichardship.

Theclassicmyths

Whilethereweredifferencesamongthesemyths,theyhadmuchincommon.Somepartswere stated positively: humans and the gods were close and the earth spontaneouslyproducedanabundanceof foodandwhateverelsepeopleneeded.Butmostwerestatednegativelyandwereconcernedwithsolvingtheproblemsofthepresent:therewasnofearofwildanimals; therewasnohumanconflict; therewasnoneed towork; therewasnocommerceorgovernmentbecausetheywerenotneeded.Boththebeginningandendingof life were easy: women gave birth without pain or there was no birth; there was nodeath,hencenoneedforbirth,oraneasydeath.Someofthemalsoexplainedhowwegotfromthegood life to thehardshipsof thepresent.Forexample,disobedience toGod inEdenledtofear,toil,death,andpainingivingbirth.

The most influential of these early myths are creation myths like the golden age andearthlyparadiseandmythsof theafterlife like theIslandsof theBlest,whereheroesgoafter death, and Hades. Suchmyths from ancient Greece and Rome, Sumer, and earlyJudaismwerecentraltothedevelopmentofWesternutopianism,andsimilarmyths,suchastheChinese‘PeachBlossomSpring’,arefoundinmostearlycivilizations.TheclassicWestern statement of the golden age is that of theGreek poetHesiod (late 8th centuryBCE),whowrote:

Goldenwas the race of speech-endowed human beingswhich the immortals, whohavetheirmansionsonOlympus,madefirstofall.TheylivedatthetimeofCronus,whenhewaskinginthesky;just likegodstheyspenttheir lives,withaspiritfreefrom care, entirely apart from toil and distress.Worthless old age did not oppressthem,buttheywerealwaysthesameinfeetandhands,anddelightedinfestivities,lacking in all evils; and they died as if overpowered by sleep. They had all goodthings:thegrain-givingfieldborecropsofitsownaccord,muchandunstinting,andtheythemselves,willing,mild-mannered,sharedoutthefruitsofthelabourtogetherwithmanygoodthings,wealthyinsheep,deartotheblessedgods.

ButtheversionofthegoldenagethatpasseddownintotheMiddleAgeswasthatoftheRoman author Ovid (43 BCE to 17/18 CE). While Hesiod stressed abundance sharedequally,ajoyfullife,andaneasydeath,Ovid,respondingtocurrentissues,addedfreedomfromlawcourts,alocalcommunity,andnowar,saying:

InthebeginningwastheGoldenAge,whenmenoftheirownaccord,withoutthreatof punishment,without laws,maintainedgood faith anddidwhatwas right.Therewerenopenaltiestobeafraidof,nobronzetabletswereerected,carryingthreatsoflegalaction,nocrowdofwrong-doers,anxiousformercy,trembledbeforethefaceoftheirjudge:indeed,therewerenojudges,menlivedsecurelywithoutthem.Neveryethad any pine tree, cut down from its home on the mountains been launched onocean’swaves, tovisit foreign lands:menknewonly theirownshores.Theircitieswere not yet surrounded by sheer moats, they had no straight brass trumpets, nocoilingbrass helmets andno swords.Thepeoplesof theworld, untroubledby anyfears,enjoyedaleisurelyandpeacefulexistence,andhadnouseforsoldiers.

The changes Ovid made show how these stories reflected current issues even as theyappeartobeoutoftimealtogether.

ThequotationfromTeleclidesatthebeginningofthischapterisanotherexampleoflifeinthe age of Cronus, and the Roman poet Lucian of Samosato (c. 125 to after 180) hasCronussay:

during my week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking and beingdrunk,noiseandgamesanddice,appointingofkingsandfeastingofslaves,singingnaked, clapping of tremulous hands, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icywater,–sucharethefunctionsoverwhichIpreside.

TheRomanfestivalofSaturn,knownastheSaturnalia,wasanactualfestivalinwhichthegoldenagewas to returnbriefly,wheremasterswaitedon servants and the rich fed thepoor and, in some versions, forgave debts. For all, therewas gluttony and a degree ofsexual freedom.And,without the gluttony and sexual freedom, the idea of a period inwhich debts are forgiven, thus giving the debtor a fresh start, is enshrined in the OldTestament,‘everycreditorshallreleasewhathehaslenttohisneighbor;heshallnotexactit to his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed’(Deuteronomy15:2).

IntheMiddleAges,descendantsofSaturnalia,suchasCarnival,whenthepoorruledforatime, and the Feast of Fools, in which the Church hierarchy was briefly reversed andwhichwas particularly popular in France, caused serious problems. From time to time,Carnivalgotoutofhand,at least fromthepointofviewof those inpower,because thepowerless thought that thereversalshouldlast longer thanafewdays.AndtheFeastofFoolswasvigorouslysuppressedbytheChurch.CarnivalstillexistsinsomeplacessuchasNewOrleansandRiodeJaneiro,butitisnolongerconsideredathreat.

IntheMiddleAges,theGreekandRomangodsweredroppedandasimilarstoryknownas the Cockaigne, or Cokaygne, which has been called ‘the poor man’s paradise’,developed in a number of European countries.Onemedieval version of theCockaignesays:

Thereareriversbroadandfine

Ofoil,milk,honeyandofwine;WaterserveththerenothingButforsightandforwashing.ManyfruitsgrowinthatplaceForalldelightandsweetsolace.

This imagery occurs again and again under different names throughout history. Wheneverythingseemshopeless,fantasycanbeparticularlypowerful.

TheRomanwriterVirgil (70–19BCE)made significant changes to themyths.First, andmostimportantly,inhisfamousFourthEclogue,alsoknownasthemessianicEclogue,hemovedthepastgoldenagetothefuture.Second,thebetterworldbecamebasedonhumanactivity rather than simply being a gift from the gods: people work, primarily inagriculture,andthiscontinuesasthemythofthehappypeasantorfarmer,amorerealistic–ifstillidealized–vision.Thismythhasneverdiedandexiststodayasasubstantialpartofmodernutopianism.

Virgil’s images of the simple life inArcadia are something of a transition between thefantasy of the first tradition and the human-created utopia of the second.And it is thehuman-created societies depicted byGreek andRomanwriters that aremost similar toMore’sUtopiaandtheworksthatfollowedit.Thisbranchoftheutopiantraditiongivespeoplehopebecauseitismorerealisticandbecauseitfocusesonhumanssolvinghumanproblems,suchasadequatefood,housing,andclothingandsecurity,ratherthanrelyingonNatureorthegods.

In the West, the formal utopia appears to have originated in classical Greece, withdescriptions of theGreek city-state Sparta being themost influential. TheGreekwriterPlutarch (46–120 CE) described the motivation of Lycurgus, the supposed founder ofSparta,andthedescriptioncouldwellfitothers,saying,

Hewasconvincedthatapartialchangeofthelawswouldbeofnoavailwhatsoever,butthathemustproceedasaphysicianwouldwithapatientwhowasdebilitatedandfull of all sorts of diseases; hemust reduce and alter the existing temperament bymeansofdrugsandpurges,andintroduceanewanddifferentregimen.

The society Lycurgus may have instituted at Sparta was based on the most rigorousequalityamongcitizens,butonlyamongcitizens(therewereslaves,andwomenwerenotcitizens). Sparta was a military regime, and in Lycurgus’s Sparta every person was tocompletelydedicatethemselvestothecountry.Theyweretolosethemselvesinthewhole;‘he trained his fellow-citizens to have neither the wish nor the ability to live forthemselves’.

ManycommentatorsconnectSpartawiththeRepublic,thebest-knownutopiaoftheGreekphilosopher Plato (428/27–348/47 BCE), which is treated as the fount of Westernutopianism. TheRepublic is primarily concerned with developing an understanding ofjustice.ItisatypicalPlatonicdialogueoftheearlytomiddleperiodinwhichaquestionis

setbySocrates (469–399BCE) andaprocessofquestionandanswer takesplaceuntil anumberofpositionshavebeenpresented,allofwhicharerejectedbySocrates.Hethenprovideshisownanswer,graduallydominatingthediscussion,turningitintoamonologuewithonlythemostperfunctoryinterjectionsfromtheothers.

The societyPlatodescribes in theRepublic is the closest possible approximation to theidealsociety.Ithasthreeclasses,correspondingtothethreefundamentalelementsofthesoulorpsyche.Theseclassesarethephilosopher-kings(orreason),theauxiliaries(orthespiritedelement),andtheartisans(whorepresenttemperanceormoderation).MostoftheRepublicisconcernedwiththefirsttwoclasses,knowncollectivelyastheguardians,andPlatotellsus littleabout thevastmajorityof thepopulation,except to implythat in thiswell-regulatedcity-state,orpolis,eachindividualwillbefittedintothevocationthatbestsuitshimorher.Asaresult,everyonewillbehappy.

However,anysocietycreatedbyhumanscanonlybeapoorreflectionoftheideal,anditmust fail. Plato explores the process of failure at considerable length; in doing so, hedevelops a theory of corruption and applies it to both individuals and societies. Theimportant thing here is not the theory but the underlying point that there cannot be aperfectsocietyorhumanbeingonthisearth.Thebestwecanachieveisanapproximation,whichwillinevitablycollapse.

Whiletheessentialingredients(harmony,knowledge,thegoodlifeofthegoodperson)oftheLaws,Plato’sothermajorutopia,areidenticaltothoseoftheRepublic,thewaytheseareachievedisdifferent.ThereistheobviousdifferencethatthepolisoftheLawsisbasedon lawwhereas thepolis of theRepublic is based on humanwisdom as personified inphilosopher-kings.ItseemsthatPlato,despairingoffindingorcreatingtheconditionsfordevelopingphilosopher-kings,wasdeterminedtoprovidethenextbestthing:thelawcodephilosopher-kingswouldlaydownforapolisunabletoreachthelevelofthepolisoftheRepublic.Heevenprovidedasubstitutefor thephilosopher-kingsinanocturnalcouncilwhichcouldoverturnthelawsifitchose.

Greekutopians,includingPlato,hadasabasicassumptionwhatwecallthesmallorface-to-facecommunity.Itwasinconceivabletothemthatagoodsocietycouldbealargeonein which citizens could not all regularly meet and converse. The idea that somethingbiggermightbepossiblesurfacedonlyasGreecedeclinedandRomegrew.

The first great anti-utopian, theGreekwriter of comediesAristophanes (448–380BCE),wrote at the same time and discussedmany of the same themes as the utopianwriters.From the utopian perspective, the most important of his plays was Ecclesiazusae, orWomeninParliament,inwhichagroupofwomensucceededintakingoverthelegislativeassemblyandenactingaformofcommunism.Theirlegislationfailednotbecauseitwasbad but because the human race was not capable of the required altruism. This is astandardreasongivenforrejectingutopias.AsimilarpointwasmadebyAristophanesinPlutus,inwhichtheblindgodofwealthisgivensight,whereuponheredistributeswealthtothedeserving,andthenhumangreedrapidlyredistributesitagaininequitably.

Since theGreekphilosopherAristotle (384–322BCE) rejectedPlato’sutopia andpouredscornontheotheridealstateswhichhediscussed,heisnotusuallyconsideredautopian,butinBookVIIofthePolitics,Aristotleprovidedthebasiccharacteristicsofanidealstate

insomedetail.

Aristotlebelievedthebeststatetobeoneasclosetoself-sufficiencyaspossiblewithinthelimits imposed by a small population and territory, and his utopia was based on thepossibilityofcitizensknowingeachother.Also,Aristotle’sutopiaprovided thebest lifeforitscitizens:thelifeofthemind,orthecontemplativelife,whichisnotawithdrawn,solitary life but the life of intellectual intercourse. Aristotle believed that this wouldrequirethattherebenon-citizenstodothedemeaninglabour,therebyfreeingthecitizensto lead the full life. At other places, he discussed, in more general terms, thecharacteristicsofwhatmightbecalledthebestpossiblestate.

MythsandliteratureafterMore

AfterMorewroteUtopia,mostofthemythsgraduallylosttheirpower,buttheiressencecontinued in cockaigne-like African-American tales that are found in parallel with thespirituals that gave a foretaste of the glories of the afterlife, and songs of the 1930sdepressionintheUnitedStatessuchasTheSweetPotatoMountains’and‘TheBigRockCandyMountains’.

Oneslavestorytellsofbeingconvinced

thatinArkansasthehogsjustlayingaroundalreadybakedwiththeknivesandforksstickinginthemreadyfortobeet,andthattherewasfritterpondseverywherewiththefrittersa-fryinginthempondsofgrease,andtherewasmoneytreeswhereallyouhadtodowastopickthemoneyoffen’emlikepickingcottonoffenthestalk…

And‘TheSweetPotatoMountains’containstherefrain

Oh,cigarettevinesandham‘n’eggtrees,Andbreadsproutsfromtheground,Wherewhite-linespringssquirtboozetoyourknees,Andthere’splentytogo‘round’.

Avariantof the traditionalmythcanbeseen in thenoveland filmLostHorizon (1933,filmdirectedbyFrankCapra1937) looselybasedon themythofShambhala,aTibetanBuddhist legendofamythicalkingdomhiddensomewhereininnerAsiawheresomeofthe Bodhisattvas, the most enlightened Buddhists, live. In the novel, this becomesShangri-la,alostcommunityinTibetinwhichpeopleliveextremelylonglives.

Thisisnottheplaceforahistoryofutopianliterature,butitisnecessarytosaysomethingaboutitandhowitwasused.Post-Moreutopiashaveoftenbeencharacterizedasfocusingon the city. The historian and architectural critic Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) inparticular argued that the city and the utopia were closely linked, and the followingquotations from utopias from the late 19th and mid-20th centuries illustrate views ofutopianarchitecture.

Atmyfeetlayagreatcity.Milesofbroadstreets,shadedbytreesandlinedwithfinebuildings, for the most part not in continuous blocks but set in larger or smallerenclosures,stretchedineverydirection.Everyquartercontainedlargeopensquaresfilled with trees, among which statues glistened and fountains flashed in the lateafternoon sun. Public buildings of a colossal size and an architectural grandeurunparalleledinmydayraisedtheirstatelypilesoneveryside.

(EdwardBellamy,LookingBackward)

She saw… a river, little no account buildings, strange structures like long-leggedbirdswithsails that turned in thewind,a fewlarge terracottaandyellowbuildingsandonebluedome,irregularbuildings,nonebiggerthanasupermarketinherday,anordinarysupermarketinanyshoppingplaza.Thebirdobjectswerethetallestthingsaroundand theywerescarcelyhigher thansomeof thepine treesshecouldsee.Afewlumpyfree-formstructureswithgreenvines.

(MargePiercy,WomanontheEdgeofTime)

Contrary tomuch commentary,which tends to see utopia up to themiddle of the 20thcenturyasrepresentingsomeformofcommonownership,utopiashavebeenwrittenfromevery conceivable position. There are socialist, capitalist, monarchical, democratic,anarchist,ecological,feminist,patriarchal,egalitarian,hierarchical,racist,left-wing,right-wing,reformist,freelove,nuclearfamily,extendedfamily,gay, lesbian,andmanymoreutopias, and all these types were published between 1516 and the middle of the 20thcentury, before diversity really took hold. And, because there is a strong anti-utopiantradition, thenumbercouldbedoubledbysimplyputting‘anti-’ infrontofanyof thesewords, and after the early 20th century there have been dystopiaswritten reflecting allthesepositions.

All these different works were responding to issues that their authors thought wereimportanttobringingaboutabettersociety.Mostoftheissuesareperennial,suchaslawandorder,religiousbeliefandpractice,economicrelations,governance,andchild-rearingandeducation.Buttheimportanceoftheissueschangesdependingonthetimeinwhichtheutopiaswerewritten.Utopiasare reflectionsof the issues thatwere important to theperiodinwhichtheirauthorslived.

The solutions proposed are more limited in type, if not in detail, than the issues – areformed religion that isactuallypractisedbybelievers,new lawsor lawcodes thatareenforcedfairly,bettereconomicsystems,improvedpoliticalsystems,bettereducation,andintelligent useof science and technology are among themost common solutions.Manyutopiasarenostalgicinthattheylookbacktoanidealizedpastwhichisthenmovedintothe future, with the utopia found in living the cleaned-up version rather than the waypeoplehadactuallylived.Otherstandardthemesincludeasimplerlifeandgettingabetter

balancebetweenthecityandcountry.Butallofthesehavealsobeenpresentedasbeingdone poorly or to advantage particular individuals or groups (economic, gender, power,andsoforth)andproducingdystopias.Fortheutopian,humanintelligenceandingenuityknownobounds;forthedystopian,humangreedandstupidityknownobounds.Andbothappeartoberight.

Aswithanygenreof literature, therehavebeencertainwell-knowntextsorwriters thatappeartodefinethegenre.Whileless-knowntextsmayactuallybemoretypicaloftheirperiod,itisthebest-knownworksthatdrivetheliteratureon.

More’sUtopia

More’sUtopia isacomplicated littlebookand interpretershaveclaimed it for radicallydifferent positions, from traditional Roman Catholicism to British imperialism toMarxism, sometimes by simply ignoring the complexity of the book and at other timesmaking it even more complex. One set of problems stems from the fact that Utopiaappears on the surface to be straightforwardwhile it is quite playful and satirical.Andgenerationsoftranslatorshavemisledtheirreadersbyignoringthewordplaythatwouldhavebeenobvious to thosereading theoriginalLatin.There isnota lotof it,butwhenyoudiscoverthatAnydrus,thenameofthemainriver,means‘nowater’andthesurnameof the person describing Utopia, Hythlodaeus, means ‘speaker of nonsense’, you mustbegintowonder.ButRaphael,Hythlodaeus’sfirstname,means‘healerfromGod’,soyoucannotdrawaclearconclusion.InalettertoPeterGiles,publishedinthe1517editionofUtopia,Moresatiricallycommentedontheplayonwords.DiscussingacriticwhocouldnottellwhetherUtopiawastruthorfiction,Morecommentedthatifithadbeenfictionhewouldhaveindicatedit.Hewrote:

Thus, if Ihaddonenothingelse than imposenamesonruler, river,city,and islandsuch asmight suggest to themore learned that the islandwas nowhere, the city aphantom,theriverwithoutwater,andtherulerwithoutapeople,itwouldhavebeenmuchwittierthanwhatIactuallydid.Unlessthefaithfulnessofanhistorianhadbeenbindingonme, I amnot so stupidas tohavepreferred touse thosebarbarousandmeaninglessnames,Utopia,Anydrus,Amaurotum,andAdemus.

ButUtopia,Anydrus,Amaurotum,andAdemusdomeantheislandwasnowhere,thecityaphantom,theriverwithoutwater,andtherulerwithoutapeople.

AnotherproblemisthatUtopiaincludesinstitutionspresentedpositivelythateitherwereagainstRomanCatholicChurchteachings,likevoluntaryeuthanasia,orthatMorerejectedlater in life, like religious toleration.For some interpreters, ameansmustbe found thatexcludes these institutions;StThomasMore,whodied for his beliefs,must never havethought differently than his interpreters believed he should or, like his close friend theDutchhumanistandtheologianErasmus(1466/69–1536),playfullytriedoutideasthathe

latercametoreject.

Inmoderneyes, thesocietydescribedinUtopia isnotveryattractive;it isauthoritarian,hierarchical,patriarchal,andpractisesslaveryfor relativelyminoroffences.But throughtheeyesofanearly16th-centuryreader,thesethingswerethenorm,andslaveryinUtopiawas amore humane punishment thanmany thatwould have been imposed at the time,when someminor offences were punished by death. And,most importantly, no one inUtopia was poor or rich, achieved by reducing demand, everyone working, sharingequally,andlivingsimply.Thus,tomanyinthe16thcentury,Utopiawouldhaveseemedlikeparadise.

Satire

The satire running throughoutMore’sUtopia is fundamental to both utopian traditionsbecauseoneofthefunctionsofmostutopiasistoholdthepresentuptoridiculeand,indoing so,manyutopiasusea typical toolof satire, exaggeration.And in some, like theEnglishnovelistSamuelButler’s (1835–1902)ErewhonorOver theRange (1872), it isimpossibletobecertainwhat,ifany,positivepositionisbeingadvocated.InErewhon,forexample,criminalsaretreatedassickandsenttodoctors,butthesickarethrowninjail.Asmallsubgenrethatcanbecalled‘Erewhonian’hasdevelopedfromthisbook.

MoretypicalistheIrishsatiristJonathanSwift’s(1667–1745)TravelsintoSeveralRemoteNations of the World (1726), now known as Gulliver’s Travels. The fourth book ofGulliver’sTravelsisthegoodplaceinthebook,butitsdominantinhabitantsarehorsesnothumans.Thehumans,Yahoos,areanimalisticandthehorses,Houyhnhnms,arerational,sowhatisSwiftsayingabouthumansandaboutreason?Gulliver’sTravelsgaverisetoalarge sub-genre known asGulliveriana, little ofwhich is as subtle as the original,withmuchoftheliteraturesimplyendowingsomeanimalwithhumancharacteristic.Recently,muchhasbeenwrittenaboutGulliver’swife,whomheregularlyabandoned.

Around the same time that Swift waswriting, the Englishwriter Daniel Defoe (1660–1731)publishedTheLifeandStrangeSurprizingAdventuresofRobinsonCrusoe,ofYork,Mariner(1719),nowknownasRobinsonCrusoe,whichwasbasedonareal incidentinwhichaman,theScottishsailorAlexanderSelkirk(1676–1721),wasshipwreckedaloneonanisolatedislandforfouryears.SinceCrusoeisaloneandnotparticularlycontentformostofthenovel,itishardtoseeitaspositiveornegative,andthatdoesnotchangewhenCrusoe is joined by Friday, a native of a nearby island whom Crusoe rescues fromcannibals.ButRobinsonCrusoegave rise toa largesub-genre, theRobinsonade, that isoftenutopianandusuallyincludesagroupofpeoplebeingshipwrecked,thebestknownbeing The Swiss Family Robinson (1812–13) by the Swiss writer Johann DavidWyss(1743–1818),whichwasmadeintoapopularfilm.

TheBellamyeffect

Thegreatutopiansof the late19thandearly20thcenturieswere theAmericanEdwardBellamy (1850–98) and theEnglishwritersWilliamMorris (1834–96) andH.G.Wells(1866–1946). Bellamy’s Looking Backward: 2000–1887 A.D. (1888) sold very wellaround the world and produced a substantial upsurge in the production of utopias thatlasteduntilWorldWarI.Bellamy’sutopiawassetinafutureBoston,Massachusetts,thathadevolvedintoasocietywheretheantagonismbetweencapitalismandlabourhadbeenovercome.Ascorporationsbecamebiggerandbiggerandbecamemonopoliescontrollingmost of the economy, they were nationalized or simply taken over by the state, withworkers becoming employees of the state. Hours of work varied based on theunpleasantnessanddangerofthework,andeveryoneretiredat45.

WilliamMorris wrote a review of Looking Backward in which he deplored Bellamy’s‘machine-life’ with its emphasis on making work tolerable by reducing the amount ofwork rather than reducing ‘thepainof labour to aminimum’.Morris thenwroteNewsfromNowhere;or,AnEpochofRest(1890)todepictasocietythatstressedcraftsmanshipandthelocalcommunity.WhereasBellamyhasanelaboratepoliticalsystem,MorrisusestheHousesofParliamenttostoremanureandsays‘wehavenolongeranythingwhichyouwouldcallpolitics’.BellamywroteagenerallyfavourablereviewofNewsfromNowhere,althoughhesaiditneededmoredetail.

ButthemostprolificwriterofutopiaswasH.G.Wells,whowrotebothpositiveutopiasand dystopias. While they vary widely, there are central themes. One is the conflictbetween capital and labour,whatmight happen if it is not solved, and how to solve it.Anotheristhedesirabilityofworldgovernment.

Wellsisbestdescribedasapessimisticutopian,amanwhobelievedthatitwaspossibletoradicallyimprovehumanlifebutdoubtedthatthewillpowertodosowouldbefound.Henevergaveuphope,butheneverstoppeddoubtingeither.TheTimeMachine(1895),oneofWells’searliestandmostsuccessfulnovels,issetfarinthefuturewiththedescendantsof capital and labour still in conflict.Most of his otherutopias anddystopias are set innearer futures and some, particularly the dystopias, can be read as stages towards thefuture depicted inThe TimeMachine, with the division between the capital and labourbecomingmoreandmoreextreme.TheutopiasandmuchofWells’snon-utopianpoliticalwritings suggest ways that the negative futures can be avoided. Wells believed thatintelligence,particularlyscientificintelligence,appliedtosocialproblemswastheanswer.In AModernUtopia (1905), he depicts an association of men and women, called theSamurai,who,livingaccordingtoastrictcodeofbehaviouranddedicatedtoservice,hadcreatedandmaintainedthemuchbettersocietyWellsbelievedpossible.

He called for the creation of such a group,which hemost frequently called ‘theOpenConspiracy’, in many works, and he advocated many reforms, from birth control to aworldencyclopedia,assmallstepsintherightdirection.Wellswasclearlyfrustratedthathisideaswerenotadoptedmoreoften,andheworkedhardtosellhisideasandtoimproveeducation,particularlyscientificeducation, in thehope thatabetter-educatedpopulationwould bemore receptive to his proposals.ButWells is best known for his non-utopiansciencefiction,hisdystopias,andsomeofhiscomicnovels,ratherthanforhisutopiasandhispoliticalwriting.

Thegrowthofthedystopia

AndwithWorldWarsIandII,thefluepidemic,theDepression,theKoreanWar,thewarinVietnam,andothereventsofthe20thcentury,dystopiasbecamethedominantformofutopian literature. While the word ‘dystopia’ was first used in the middle of the 18thcentury, and theEnglish philosopher John StuartMill (1806–73) used it in a speech inParliamentin1868,theliteraryformandtheuseofthewordtodescribeitdidnotbecomecommonuntilwellintothe20thcentury.

In1883,FrancisGalton(1822–1911)coinedtheterm‘eugenic’referringtotheabilitytoproduce superior offspring, with specific reference to humans rather than animals. Amovement developed with the idea of improving the human stock through selectivebreeding for certain characteristics (positive eugenics) or selective breeding to avoidcertain characteristics (negative eugenics). Many utopias were written, including twounpublished ones by Galton (‘Kantsaywhere’ and ‘The Donoghues of Dunno Weir’),reflectingthismovement.Manyoftheutopias,includingGalton’s,believingthatselectivebreedingalonewouldnotbeenoughtoproducethedesiredresult,wereasconcernedwiththesocialconditionsintowhichchildrenwerebornandhowtheywereraisedastheywerewith the physical andmoral characteristics of the parents. Other works were primarilyconcerned with selective breeding, focusing on the elimination of undesirablecharacteristics by prohibiting people who exhibited them from having children or byrequiring peoplewith the desired characteristics to have childrenwith each other.Bothapproachesproduceddystopias,eitherbyvirtueofdisagreementsoverthetraitschosenorworriesaboutthepotentialformisuseofthepowertomakethechoices.

Proposalstoselectonracialandethnicgroundswerecommonand,wherethepowertodosoexisted,putintopractice.Thebest-knownprogrammewasthatofGermanyundertheNationalSocialists,whenpeoplewithcharacteristicsdesignatedforeliminationwerenotmerelypreventedfromhavingchildrenbutwerekilled.Lesswellknown,Germanyalsopractisedpositiveeugenics,breedingpeoplewithdesiredtraits.UtopiaswerepublishedinGermany and other countries depicting the better society to be produced by suchprogrammes.

TherewereanumberofNaziutopiaspublished,suchasErnstBergmann’sDeutschland,das Bildungsland der neuenMenschen (Germany, the Cultural Land of the NewMan;1933),but therewerealsoa largenumberofanti-Germanandanti-Nazidystopias,withSwastika Night (1937) by Katherine Burdekin (1896–1963), writing as MurrayConstantine,amongthemostpowerful.

Thesameperiodthatproducedmanyanti-Germanandanti-Sovietdystopiasalsosawthepublicationof threeoutstandingworks: theRussianEvgenyZamiatin’s(1884–1937)We(writteninRussianin1920,butfirstpublishedinEnglishin1924),andtheEnglishwritersAldousHuxley’s(1894–1963)BraveNewWorld (1932)andGeorgeOrwell’s (bornEricBlair,1903–50)NineteenEighty-Four(1949;Orwellinsistedthatthetitlebespelledout).While all three target themisuseofpower, each is amany-faceted, complexworkwithmultipleconcerns,andtheyallattackcapitalismasmuchastheyattackcommunism.Allthree depict partially failed attempts to control the power of sexual desire.We licenses

sexualbehaviourinawaythatismeanttomeetindividualneeds;BraveNewWorldinsistsonpromiscuity;andNineteenEighty-Fourseverelyrestrictssex.Andallthreeimplythatthismaybeanareathatevenatotalitarianregimewouldnotbeabletocontrol.HuxleywroteinBraveNewWorldRevisited(1958)thathehadsimplyprojectedintothefuturethingsthathehadobservedatthetimeofwritingandthathadworriedhim,andthat25yearslater,thefutureofBraveNewWorldseemedtobecomingmuchfaster thanhehad expected in the 1930s. He had also written that if he were to rewriteBrave NewWorld, hewould have provided amore positive alternative, and he did just that in hisutopia Island (1962),whichdepicts agoodsociety inwhichpromiscuity is transformedinto free love,with the emphasis on love; thedrugSoma,used inBraveNewWorld toescapefromproblems,isreplacedwithMokshaMedicine(akintopeyoteorLSD),whichleadstoenlightenment;andtheothernegativesofBraveNewWorldbecomepositives,atleastpartiallythroughthepowerofreligion.Butattheend,theutopiaiscrushedbytheoutsideworldbecauseithasoil.

Huxley’sprojectionorextrapolationintothefutureoftrendshesawaroundhimbecamethenormfordystopias.Whiledystopiastendtodifferfromutopiasinnotbeingdescribedbyanoutsidevisitorbutfromwithin, theyareclearlyconnectedtothepresent inwhichtheyarewritten.Inthatconnection,theyprovideanexplicitlypositivemessagetogowiththenegativeone.Theysay,asH.G.Wellsconstantlysaid,thatthisiswhatwillhappenifwefailtoact,butifwedoact,thisfuturecanstillbeavoided.Mostwritersofdystopiasleftitatthat,asawarning,butWellsputmucheffortintospellingoutjustwhathethoughtneededtobedoneandhowtodoit.

Whilethedystopiabecamethedominantliteraryformofthe20thcentury,theutopiawasnotdisplaced, andat the same time that thegreatdystopiasof the first halfof the20thcenturywerebeingpublished,thereweremanyutopiaspublished,andutopianmovementsflourished particularly during the 1930s depression. In the USA, the novelist UptonSinclair(1878–1968)combinedthetwo,writinganumberofutopiassuchasWe,PeopleofAmericaandHowWeEndedPoverty(1935)andrunningtobegovernorofCaliforniawith a programme called EPIC, or End Poverty in California. Also, the technocracymovement that proposed replacing politicians with engineers and scientists produced anumberof utopias, notablyLife inaTechnocracy (1933) byHaroldLoeb (1891–1974).Othersimilarmovementsemergedinmostcountriesfacedwiththeeconomicandsocialproblemsofthetime.Butasthepossibilityofwarbecameofgreaterandgreaterconcern,thedystopiadominatedthesceneuntilafterWorldWarII.

In Britain, both during the war and in the immediate aftermath, works such as J. B.Priestley’s(1894–1984)‘TheyCametoaCity’(1944)andC.E.M.Joad’s(1891–1953)TheAdventuresoftheYoungSoldierinSearchoftheBetterWorld(1943)speculatedaboutthebettersocietythatcouldbecreatedaftervictorywasachieved.AftertheLabourPartywonthe1945election,bookslikeJamesHanley’s(1901–85)WhatFarrarSaw(1946)andSomersetDeChair’s (1911–95)The Teetotalitarian State (1947) satirized Labour Partypolicy.

The‘Sixties’

While utopias were published throughout the period that the dystopia dominated, theywentunnoticeduntiltheupsurgeinutopianismintheso-called‘Sixties’(theactualdatesvaried from country to country).Much of the utopian impulse in this period led to thestreets,to,forexample,the1968uprisinginCzechoslovakia,the1968rebellioninPariswithitsexplicitlyutopianmessage‘Leréalismequidemandel’impossible’(‘Berealistic,demandtheimpossible’),andthecivilrightsmovementintheUnitedStates.Inaddition,many intentional communities, then universally known as communes, were founded,manyofwhichstillexistover40yearslater.Andutopianliteratureflourished,butitwasaliteraturewithadifference,achastenedliteraturethatknewthatachievingabettersocietywould not be easy. Its societieswere populatedwithmen andwomenwith real humanstrengths andweaknesses, and even themuch better societies still have problems, evenseriousones.UrsulaK.LeGuin’s(b.1929)TheDispossessed(1974)hadthesubtitleAnAmbiguousUtopia, and that subtitle fitsmanyof theotherworkspublishedat the time.The literary scholar Tom Moylan (b. 1943) called these works ‘critical utopias’, thepoliticaltheoristLucySargisson(b.1964),focusingonfeministutopianism,calledthem‘transgressiveutopias’,and Ihavecalledsomeof them‘flawedutopias’ to illustrate theway inwhichsomeauthors, likeUrsulaK.LeGuin inher ‘TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas’(1973),presentwhatappearstobeautopiabutmayinfactbeadystopia.

The feminist utopia was the most important of the streams coming out of Sixtiesutopianism and producedmost of the novels of the period that are still read. In 1972,Joanna Russ (b. 1937) published an essay entitled ‘What Can a Heroine Do?OrWhyWomen Can’t Write’, arguing that contemporary societies were so sexist that only byinventingnewworldswasitpossibleforwomentocreatefullyroundedfemalecharacters.Andfeministutopianismwasasignificantpartofthefeministmovement.Thebest-knownfeministutopiaswereRuss’sTheFemaleMan (1975),MargePiercy’s (b.1936)Womanon the Edge of Time (1976), and a number of short stories by Alice Bradley Sheldon(1915–87), writing as James Tiptree, Jr, such as ‘Houston Houston, Do You Read?’(1976).

Utopiatoday

Aspects of the utopianism of the Sixties were part of long-term changes in Westernsocieties,buttherewasabacklashagainstthesechanges,and,whileutopiascontinuedtobepublished,utopianliteraturemostlyreturnedtothedystopia.Exceptforlesbianutopias,feminist utopias almost disappeared in the 1990s, although there has been a resurgencesince2000.Thegreatexceptiontothereturntothedystopiahasbeenintheenvironmentalutopia. Certainly, many dystopias have depicted the horrors of a future environmentalcollapse, but Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) and others have published importantenvironmentalutopias.Robinsonhaspublishedtwotrilogieswithenvironmentalthemes,theMarstrilogy(1992,1993,1996)andaclimatechange/globalwarmingtrilogywhosefirstvolume,FortySignsofRain(2004),depictsthedystopiabroughtaboutbythefailureofpoliticianstodealwithglobalwarmingandthetwoothervolumes,FiftyDegreesBelow

(2005) and Sixty Days and Counting (2007), deal with a change in policy and itsultimatelypositive results.And thewhole subgenreof the ecotopia, named afterErnestCallenbach’s(b.1928)1975novelofthatnameistodaythestrongestutopiancurrent,andmanyecotopiasarealsofeminist,sothatthetwostrongestcurrentsofthelast50yearsarenowoftencombined.Forexample,novelsbySallyMillerGearhart(b.1931)suchasTheWanderground:StoriesoftheHillWomen(1978)andTheMagister(2003)combinebothfeministandecologicalperspectives.Utopian literature isconstantlychanging,addingnewforms.Today,most iscomplexorambiguous,presentingbetterbutflawedsocieties,orworsesocietieswithsomethingstillgoodaboutthem.Arecentchangeisthemigrationofutopiastotheinternetandpublish-on-demand publishers (it regularly appeared in pod’s previous incarnation, ‘vanity’presses).Workspostedonthewebandpodpublicationsaremorelikelytoreadlikesomeoftheolderutopias,withsimple,one-size-fits-allanswerstocomplexquestions,butsome,like Merritt Abrash’s (b. 1930) Mindful of Utopia (2002), are as complex as othercontemporaryworks.Suchformsofpublicationhaveaddedto thecontemporarygrowthof utopian literature, but, as with many past utopias, much of it goes unread, to thefrustrationofitsauthors.

Chapter2Utopianpractice

Overthecenturies,manyindividualsandgroupshaveattemptedtoputtheirvisionsintopractice.Sometriedtogainpoliticalpower todoso(fewsucceeded)andotherscreatedsocialmovements(withgreatersuccess).Thoseutopianswhogainedpoliticalpoweroftencreated dystopias rather than utopias, with, in the 20th century, countries like NaziGermany under Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and Cambodia/Kampuchea under Pol Pot(1928–98)beingnoteworthyexamples.

Butthemostcommonformofputtingaspecificvisionintopracticehasbeentocreateasmallcommunityeither towithdrawfromthe largersociety topractise thebeliefsof itsmembers without interference or to demonstrate to the larger society that their utopiacouldbeputintopractice.Althoughhedeniedtheutopianconnection,thehistorianArthurEugeneBestor,Jr(1908–94)calledthelatter‘patent-officemodelsofthegoodsociety’,alabelthatactuallymakestheutopianconnection.

Inaddition,small,temporaryactionsarenowbeingseenasutopianbecausetheygenerallyemployautopianimageagainstthedystopiathat,astheirproponentsseeit,theyoppose.Theseactionstakeplaceinmanydifferentways,fromperformancetoprotest.

Intentionalcommunities

Whatwe nowmost often call intentional communities, popularly known as communes,havehadmanynamesinthepast,anumberofwhichrelatedirectlytoutopianism,suchasutopian community, utopian experiment, practical utopia, alternative society, andexperimentalcommunity.Theselabelsandtheirvariantshaveeitherneverbeenacceptedorhavesincebeendroppedinfavourofamoreneutralterm;manypeoplelivinginsuchcommunities have rejected the label ‘utopian’ and prefer ‘intentional community’. Still,evengiventhisrejectionandthefactthatmostsuchcommunitieshavenotbeenutopianinthewaysthewordiscommonlyused,therearecloseconnectionsbetweenutopianismandsuchcommunities.

There is no absolutely agreed upon definition of an intentional community, but manywouldagreewithsomethinglikemine:

Agroupoffiveormoreadultsandtheirchildren,ifany,whocomefrommorethanone nuclear family and who have chosen to live together to enhance their sharedvaluesorforsomeothermutuallyagreeduponpurpose.

Themost important part of this definition and the part that connects such communitieswithutopianismis theemphasison livinga lifebasedon‘sharedvalues’ora‘mutuallyagreeduponpurpose’.

Allcommunities,eventhosewhobelievethattheyarewaitingfortheSecondComingofChrist in the near future, have constitutions, rules and regulations, and/or agreements(formalor informal)abouthowtheirmembersaretolivetheir lives.If thesedocumentsandagreementshadbeenfictions,wewouldcallthemutopiaswithoutquestion,andoftenthey are fictions in the sense that they do not accurately reflect how the communityactuallyfunctions.

Intentionalcommunitieshavebeenestablishedsothattheirmemberscanliveaparticularwayof life.Somehavesought tochangesexualbehaviorradically.Manyhavechangedhow people ate, and the vegetarian communities changed what people ate. Manycommunitieshavechangedhowworkwasorganized,andparticularlyhavebrokendowngenderdistinctionsinhowworkwastobeallocated.Othersworkedwithsomesuccessatbreakingdownthedistinctionbetweenmentalandphysicallabour.

Manyhavebeenreligiousandtheytriedtoleadawayoflifethattheirmembersbelievedtheirfaithrequired.Manyhavefollowedacharismaticleader,preachingtheirversionofreligious belief, gaining followers, and establishing communities.Others have followedtheideasofasocialtheorist.Therearemanyotherreasonsthatpeoplechoosetowithdrawfrommainstreamsocietytolivedifferently.

The first such religious communities were probably Hindu ashrams and then Buddhistmonasteries. Among the first such groups towithdraw to practise their beliefs inwhatbecame part of theWestern traditions were the Essenes, a Jewish religious group thatexisted inmany cities from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE, established theQumran community, and produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, thought to have been theirlibrary.MostEsseneswerecelibate,andtheylivedcommunally.Later,someoftheearliestspecificallyChristiancommunities formedaround individualholymen,usuallyhermits,knowncollectivelyastheDesertFathers.

ManyofthereligiouswithdrawncommunitiesbasedtheirpracticesontheirinterpretationoftheearlychurchinJerusalem,particularlythedescriptionofcommunityofgoodsfoundinActs2:44–45–‘Andallwhobelievedweretogetherandhadallthingsincommon;andtheysoldtheirpossessionsandgoodsanddistributedthemtoall,asanyhadneed’–whichwas constantly referred to in the descriptions of themselves by later communities.Andmany of the founders of the communities believed that the communal practices of theearlychurchreflectedtheintentionofJesus.Later,communitypropertywasthoughttobeappropriateforthosewhodedicatedthemselvestotheChurchbutnotforlaypeople.

Christianconventsandmonasteries

ThefirstmajorstepinthecreationoftheChristianmonastictraditionwasTheRuleofSt

Benedict, inwhichBenedict (480?–?543)gavedetailsofanorderdesigned toprovideastructuredsettingwithinwhichitwouldbepossibletoleadabetterlife,closertotheidealChristian life. Benedict’s Rule requires that nomonk have any property, saying, ‘morethan anything else is this vice of property to be cut off root and branch from themonastery’.Detailsaregivenontheamountoffoodtobegivenout(RuleXXXIX)andthe amount of wine to be allowed – one pint per day (Rule XL). A rule specifies theamount ofmanualwork and opposes idleness (RuleXLVIII), details the clothing to beissued(RuleLV),and,ofcourse,thevariousofficers,religiousrituals,andproceduresforadmissiontothemonastery.Theseruleshelpedcreatecommunitiesdesignedtomaketherighteous life possible.Defenders ofmonasticismexplicitly contended thatmost peoplewerenotcapableofsuchalifeandthatonlywithinthemonasticsettingwouldthisclearlyutopiangoalbepossible.

As monasteries prospered and monks appeared to lose the austerity originallyrecommended,reformswereinstitutedbytheFrenchStOdoofCluny(c.878–942),whoestablishedtheCluniacformofmonasteryinordertocorrectwhathesawastheexcessesofothermonasticorders.StFrancisofAssisi (1181/82–1226)alsostressed theneedforreformandproposed awanderingorder of friarswhowere actually topractisepoverty.Francis’s approach was subverted by conservatives within the Church and a moretraditionalFranciscanorderwasultimatelyfounded.

Theattempt tore-achievethe idealsofBenedict,Odo,Francis,andothers isarecurringthemeinthehistoryofmonasticism.Anewruleiswritten,instituted,andpractised.Themonasteries become successful and fall upongood times,which are their undoing.Themonksbecomeidleandusedtothegoodlife.Thenanewruleisinstitutedandthecycleresumes.

TheReformationproducedmanygroupsthathopedtocreatealifebasedontheirreadingoftheNewTestament.Forexample,theHutterianBrethrenwerefirstestablishedduringtheRadicalReformationinthe16thcentury.TheHutterites,astheyarealsoknown,werenamedaftertheirearlyleaderJakobHutter(c.1500–36),whoinsistedonacommunityofgoodsandpacifism.

4.Monasticcommunitiesareamongtheoldestintentionalcommunitiesand

continuetothriveandadjusttochangesinthesocietiesinwhichtheyexist,includingintheirarchitecture,asshownbythisprioryoftheBenedictinecommunityinSt

Louis,Missouri

To escape persecution, they moved to various countries in Europe before becomingestablished inNorthAmerica in the late 19th century. In theUSAduringWorldWar I,theywereprosecutedfortheirpacifism,andmanycommunitiesmovedtoCanada.Today,therearealmost500Hutteritecommunities,themajorityoftheminCanada.

FewothercommunitiesfromtheReformationperiodstillexist,butmanythatemergedonthe Continent during the following 200 years established communities in the UnitedStates, notably the Community of True Inspiration, better known as the AmanaCommunities,inIowa,whichtraceditsoriginstoGermanyin1714andtheteachingsofEberhard Ludwig Gruber (d. 1728) and Johann Friedrich Rock (1678? –1749), whobelievedthattheycontinuedtoreceivedirectmessagesfromGod.

OtherreligiousgroupsdevelopedinBritainandtheUnitedStatesandchosetoestablishcommunitiestoenablethemtopractisetheirbeliefs.ThebestknownaregroupssuchastheShakers(officiallytheUnitedSocietyofBelieversinChrist’sSecondAppearing)andtheOneidacommunity.OnepractisingShakercommunityremainsinMaine,buttodaytheShakers are best known for their craftsmanship.TheOneida community did not last aslongandbecameastockcompanyproducingOneidaSilverplate.Butattheirheight,bothwere known for their characteristic sexual practices, the Shakers being celibate and theOneidacommunitypractisingwhat theycalled ‘complexmarriage’,withall communitymembersassumedtobemarriedtoallothers,althoughsexualrelationswerenotgenerallypromiscuous. Both believed in and tried to practise gender equality, with the Shakersbelieving that the Second Coming of Christ had occurred in the female form in theirfounderAnnLee(1736–84).AndtheOneidacommunityinstitutedaeugenicexperimentby choosing those who were allowed to have children together. The experiment isgenerally considered successful in the sense thatmost of the children produced provedbothhealthyandintelligent,andmostlytheirdescendantshavecontinuedtobeso.

5.TheShakermeetinghouseattheCanterbury,NewHampshire,community

showingtheseparatedoorsformenandwomen

Other communities were established based on the ideas of reformers, such as themenidentified by FriedrichEngels (1820–95) asutopian socialists to distinguish them fromMarxian scientific socialism. Engels identified three theorists as utopian socialists: theWelshmanRobertOwen (1771–1858), and theFrenchmenCharlesFourier (1772–1837)andHenriSaint-Simon(1760–1825).Althoughnoneofthemwroteautopiannovel,theydidpublishexpositionsoftheiridealsocieties,andotherswroteutopiannovelsbasedontheideasofOwenandFourier.OwenestablishedintentionalcommunitiesintheUKandtheUSA, andothers founded communities basedonhis ideas in those countries and inIreland.Owenwasconcernedwith factory reform, andhis reformsathis cottonmill inNew Lanark, Scotland, were very successful. New Lanark is now a UNESCOWorldHeritage Site. Communities based on the proposals of Fourier and Saint-Simon werefoundedinFranceandlaterintheUSA.

6.NewLanarkwasthesiteofRobertOwen’s(1771–1858)firstmajorstepinhis

careerasareformer.WhenOwenbecamemanagerofthecottonmillatNewLanark,heprovidedthevillagerswithdecenthousing,education,healthcare,andfoodataffordableprices,noneofwhichwasavailableinmostfactorytowns.Healso

abolishedphysicalpunishmentandlimitedchildlabour.Owen’sexperimentwasagreatsuccessbothinthesensethatproductivityincreasedandinthesensethathis

workerswerehappier.NewLanarkisnowaUNESCOWorldHeritageSite

Thekibbutz

Manyreligiousandsecularcommunitieswereestablished throughout the19thandearly20thcenturies,butthenextmajoreventinthehistoryofintentionalcommunitieswasthefoundingofDegania, the first kibbutz, in Palestine in 1920.Many Jews,most of themyoungpeople,movedtotheareatoestablishkibbutzthroughoutwhatisnowIsrael.Theearliest onesweremainly secular, although religious communities, calledMoshav,werealsoestablished.

Thekibbutzweregenerallysuccessfuluntilthecombinationofglobalizationandtroublesin the Israeli economy forced many to make significant changes in their internaleconomies. Most kibbutz have survived their difficult times, but many are not ascommunaloraswell-offastheyoncewere.

HenryNear,thehistorianofthekibbutzmovement,callsthekibbutztoday‘post-utopian’,arguing that the founding was clearly utopian in that it expected the kibbutzim wouldcreatewhollynewandbetter lives for theirmembersbut that sincenopeopleor socialformcouldeverliveuptothehopesofthefounding,peoplemustadjusttotherealityofdailylifewithotherpeopleandthelossoftheoriginalvision.Itis‘post-utopian’inthatmanymembersadjusttheirutopianvisiontothereality,somesimplychangingthedream,someputtingitinthepast,someconcludingthatthecurrentsituationisstillbetterthanthealternatives,andothersputtingutopiaofftosomeundefinedfuture.

At itspeak, thekibbutzmovement attractedagreatdealofmoral and financial supportfromthegovernmentofIsrael,andafewothercountriessawtheadvantagesinsupportingcommunal settlements. In the USA, during the depression of the 1930s about 100communitieswereconstructedasameansofreliefandresettlement.AndinNewZealandinthe1970s,aprogrammewasputinplacetoestablishcommunitiesknownas‘Ohu’,aMaoriwordmeaningtoachievesomething‘bymeansoffriendlyhelpandwork’.Afewcommunitieswereestablishedbutwerequicklyunderminedbythebureaucracy.

Dystopiancommunities

The Chinese communes established under Mao Zedong (1893–1976) were anauthoritarianversionofcommunalismandshowthatitcanbedystopianinthatthelivesofmanyof thepeople required to joinwere clearlyworse than theyhadbeenbefore.Themass suicides at Jonestown and the Solar Temple also indicate that participating in acommunitywithanexceptionallystrong,charismaticleadercanleadpeopletodothingsthat they probably would not do otherwise, including killing themselves. While manycharges against intentional communities have been shown to be false, there are enoughexamplesofmistreatmenttorequirerecognitionofthedystopiansideofcommunalism.

The‘Sixties’communities

TheSixtiesproducedanexplosionofintentionalcommunitiesthroughouttheworld,withthousandsofmostlyshort-livedurbangroupsself-identifyingascommunesandhundredsof rural communities founded with varying utopian visions. Such communities wereestablished throughout Europe and North America. Because of its perception that thecommunities practised free love orwere promiscuous (somewere, somewere not), thepresswasfascinatedbyHippiecommunesliketheruralDropCityandtheHogFarmandKeristaintheHaightAshburydistrictofSanFrancisco.Someurbancommunesservedas‘safehouses’foranti-waractiviststryingtoavoidarrest,andthisledthepresstocondemnallcommunitiesasharbouringdangerousradicals.InbothEuropeandNorthAmerica,themajority of communities were simply trying to practise what their members saw as abetter, lessmaterialistic, freer way of life, and the continued existence of a substantialnumberofthemmorethan40yearslatersuggeststhatsomepeoplefoundwhattheywerelookingfor.

7.DropCitywasanintentionalcommunityestablishedinsouthernColoradointhemid-1960s.Originallyestablishedbyartstudentsfromtheuniversitiesof

ColoradoandKansas,itbecameaniconofHippiecommunalism.Itwasnotedforitsdomearchitecture

Also, in the Sixties many people were attracted to Eastern religions, particularlyBuddhism and Hinduism. As a result, Buddhist monks began to move to Westerncountries to teachandestablishmonasteries,andHinduteachersandgurusalsocametoEuropeandNorthAmericaandestablishedashrams.

But the communities that weremost similar to earlier communities were not based onEastern religionsbutonanewvision, like thecommunities inspiredby thebehaviouralpsychologist B. F. Skinner’s utopian novel Walden Two. The best known of thesecommunities,TwinOaks inVirginia, longagomovedawayfromtheSkinnerianmodel,but theothersurvivorof theoriginalSkinneriancommunities,LosHorconesinMexico,still follows aspects of the original vision of using the institutions of the community tomodifyandimprovebehaviour.

TwinOaks isamemberof theFederationofEgalitarianCommunities,asmallgroupof

communities that try tomeet seven criteria. These criteria are goals, aspirational ratherthan currently achieved, but they clearly enunciate a utopian vision. Each of theFederationcommunities:

1.Holdsitsland,labor,incomeandotherresourcesincommon.

2. Assumes responsibility for the needs of its members, receiving the products oftheirlaboranddistributingtheseandallothergoodsequallyaccordingtoneed.

3.Practicesnon-violence.

4.Usesaformofdecisionmakinginwhichmembershaveanequalopportunitytoparticipate,eitherthroughconsensus,directvote,orrightofappealoroverrule.

5. Actively works to establish the equality of all people and does not permitdiscrimination on the basis of race, class, creed, ethnic origin, age, sex, sexualorientation,orgenderidentity.

6.Actstoconservenaturalresourcesforpresentandfuturegenerationswhilestrivingtocontinuallyimproveecologicalawarenessandpractice.

7. Creates processes for group communication and participation and provides anenvironmentwhichsupportspeople’sdevelopment.

AndthereisanetworkofcommunitiesintheUSAcentredonthemagazineCommunities:LifeinCooperativeCulture,whichhasbeenpublishedsince1972;anetworkintheUKcentred on the seriesDiggers andDreamers, which has been published since the early1990s;andaworldwidenetworkofeco-villages.

Contemporaryintentionalcommunities

Tworecentmovementsareeitherdirectlyconnectedwithorrelatedtocommunalism.Theeco-villagemovementisclearlypartofcommunalism,withsmallcommunitiesthroughoutthe world trying to achieve a more ecologically balanced lifestyle, architecture, andcommunitydesign.Someofthesecommunities,like theFarminTennesseein theUSA,alsoprovidesupportforthedevelopmentofothersuchcommunities.Somecommunitiesor individual members of communities use the expertise gained in needing to achieveconsensusto trainpeoplebothinothercommunitiesandoutsidecommunalismingroupdynamics.

The co-housing movement, which originated in Denmark and has spread throughoutWestern countries, has links to intentional communities. In co-housing, property is amixture of private and collective, with the site and shared facilities held collectively,usuallyasshareholders,andtheindividualhousesownedindividually.Theethosstressescommunity interaction. Some co-housing groups see themselves as intentionalcommunities, but others reject the connection, and this division accurately reflects the

reality of co-housing. The form of property-holding tends to be the same or at leastsimilar,buttheextentofcommunitylifevariesconsiderably.Atoneendofthespectrum,communitymeetings, communitywork, sharedmeals, and the likeare thenorm.At theotherend,communityinteractionisminimalandexistsonlytotheextentrequiredbythelegalagreements.Mostgroupsaresomewhereinbetweentheseextremes.Housing cooperatives, which range from a single house providing accommodation forstudents at a university to massive complexes, are also intentional communities. Eventhough the larger ones may have little communal activity, the smaller ones oftenphysicallylooklikeanurbanintentionalcommunityandfunctioninmuchthesameway.In addition, some producer cooperatives, such as Mondragón in Spain, are regularlyincludedas intentionalcommunities in that theyprovidenot just jobs for theirworkers,butinvolvetheminrunningthebusinessandprovidethemwithamenities,oftenincludinghousing,thatgowellbeyondthoseprovidedbymostbusinesses.

It should be clear that there is no one model of community life; that intentionalcommunities serve many purposes. For example, Black Mountain College was acommunitythatactedasaculturalandpoliticalcentre,withthefolksingerPeteSeeger(b.1918), the composer John Cage (1912–92), and the dancer and choreographer MerceCunningham(1919–2009)asmembers.

Formany years, Belgium has had communities designed for thementally ill, and suchtherapeuticcommunitieshavebecomecommon.IntheUSA,theGouldFarmcommunityinMassachusetts and theCooperRiis community inNorthCarolina have long providedsuchasetting.TheCamphillcommunitiesthroughouttheworld,whicharebasedontheteachings of theAustrian educatorRudolf Steiner (1861–1925),workwith peoplewhohave learning disabilities,mental health problems, and other special needs, providing asecure,supportiveenvironment inwhichtheyareable todevelopasfullyaspossibleasindividuals.

A group of communities that are a variant of therapeutic communities are theCatholicWorkercommunities,whichwereestablishedtoassistalcoholics,drugaddicts,andothersat the very bottomof the social ladder to better themselves. Such communities includeCatholic Worker houses in the worst parts of major cities and a number of ruralcommunitieswherepeoplecangoforfreshairandphysicallabourtohelptheirrecovery.AnearlierandquitesimilarversionwerethecommunitiesfoundedbytheSalvationArmyin the late 19th and early 20th centuries. City colonies and rural colonies were bothestablished,and theplanwas toexpandtooverseascolonieswhere thosewhohadbeensuccessfulintheruralcommunitieswouldbeabletostartanentirelynewlife.

Successesorfailures?

Whatmakesacommunityasuccessorafailure?Astandardanswerislongevity,with25years the standardmeasureproposedbyRosabethMossKanter (b.1943), theErnestL.ArbuckleProfessoratHarvardBusinessSchool,inherbookCommitmentandCommunity(1972),butformostcommunitymembersthisisadeeplyflawedmeasure.Whilethereare

manycommunitiestodaythatarewellpastthe25-yearrule,includingquiteafewfoundedin theSixties andgenerally thought tobe longgone, formanypeople longevity simplymissesthepoint.Thefactthatthecommunitylasteddoesnotmeanthatitcontainedthesamepeople.Somedid, somedidnot,butmostcommunitieshadsignificant turnover.Kanter’sassumptionsdoappear to fit religiouscommunities, someofwhich lasted forgenerations. IfGodorGod’s representative tells you to stay, you stay. While longevity can be a measure ofsuccess when combined with other factors, alone it is meaningless. And while Kanterherself was aware of this, the simplemeasure has nevertheless been applied by otherssincethen.

One approach to success and failure is that stated by theAmerican progressive thinkerHenryDemarestLloyd(1847–1903):

Always failures?Onlywithin these communities has there been seen, in thewideboundaries of the United States, a social life where hunger and cold, prostitution,intemperance,poverty,slavery,crime,prematureoldageandunnecessarymortality,panicandindustrialterror,havebeenabolished.Iftheyhaddonethisforonlyayear,theywouldhavedeservedtobecalledtheonlysuccessful‘society’onthiscontinent,andsomeofthemaregenerationsold.Allthishasnotbeendonebysaintsinheaven,butonearthbyaveragemenandwomen.

Anothermeasure,andoneinfavourwithcommunitymembers, is thatacommunityisasuccess to the extent that itmeets the needs of itsmembers for however long they aremembers. For most members, the success of the community is not the longevity of acommunitybutrathertheextenttowhichitdidordidnotimprovetheirlivesforthetimetheyweremembers.Ofcourse,needsobviouslyvaryfrommembertomember,andneedschangeaspeoplechange,sotheinternaldynamicsofacommunitywillchangeovertime.

Recentdevelopmentsinutopianpractice

Tworecentutopianpractices,oneofwhichisrelatedtointentionalcommunities,illustratetheway inwhichutopianismhasmovedaway from the traditionalcategories.The first,which Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson, b. 1945) has called TAZ, or TemporaryAutonomousZone,andGeorgeMcKay(b.1960)hascalledDiY(DoitYourself)Culture,isaspaceofactivitycreatedforaspecificpurpose.BothBeyandMcKayareprimarilyconcerned with protests, but the annual lesbian music camp in Michigan and othertemporary sites can be included. In retrospect, they can be called utopian because theytemporarilyproducedwhattheparticipantssawasabetterlife,howeverbriefly,andtheyrelateback toearlier temporaryutopias likeSaturnalia,Carnival, theFeastofFools, thetentmeetingsof some religious revivals, and the ‘happenings’of theSixties.Andsomecreate quite long-lasting communities, such as the women’s peace camp at Greenham

CommonairbaseinBerkshire,England,thatlastedfromSeptember1981until2000.

Utopian language isalsobeingused forevenmore temporaryphenomena.There is, forexample, theBritish art collective Freee (3 es)which creates political protest in publicspaceby,amongotherthings,simplygoingtoaplace,usuallywithasloganofsomesort,and standing there for hours creating a TAZ or temporary utopian space aroundthemselves.Theartiscreatedbythepeoplewhointeractwiththem.Therearemanysuchgroups,butFreeeseeswhatitisdoingasutopian.

Anaspectofthisphenomenonisperformance.Ineveryperformance,beitmusic,dance,theatre,orsomeformsofpublicart,thereareatleasttwothingsgoingon,oneamongtheperformers and one in the audience. In rare cases, the two bond together and a trulyutopianmomentiscreated;butmoreoften,therearewhatmightbethoughtofassmallerutopian moments. More often, but still rarely, the performers create the utopian spaceamong themselves in that one performance, and performance theorists have made theutopia connection. For example, Jill Dolan (b. 1957), a professor of drama at theUniversityofTexas,wrote:

I believe that theatre and performance can articulate a common future, one that’smorejustandequitable,oneinwhichwecanallparticipatemoreequally,withmorechancestolivefullyandcontributetothemakingofculture.

Thereare lotsofsuchmoments,andwhileweknowthat thenextperformancemaynotreachtheheightsof thelastone,knowingthat it ispossibleandthefeelingsitproduceswhen it happens arewhat is important.And it is important inways that are potentiallypoliticalbecausethesatisfactionofthatmomentcanleakoutoftheperformancespacetoinformthedissatisfactionofeverydaylife.

Dissatisfaction is the beginning of utopianism, and ultimately utopianism is about thetransformationofeveryday life;utopianismconfronts thefact that livesarewholes, thatchildren, families, marriage, education, economics, politics, death, and so on are allconnected.Andintentionalcommunitiesareparticularlyradicalinthattheirmembersarewilling to experiment with the transformation of their own lives. And all members ofintentionalcommunitiesmustdealwiththistransformationeveryday.

Chapter3Indigenous,colonial,andpostcolonialutopianism

Therehavebeentwotypesofcolonies,andbothweredesignedtoservetheinterestsofthehomecountry,not the interestsof thecolony.Onewasprimarily intended toexploit thelabour,rawmaterials,andwealthofthecolony.Thesecondwasdesignedforsettlement,either to offload surplus population or as places to send undesirables. Colonies areimportant to utopianism in that they represented utopian dreams themselves, but alsobecause collectively more literary utopias have been written and more intentionalcommunities have been established in colonies than in the countries from which theyoriginated.Allcolonieshadimpactsontheindigenouspopulations,andtheinterpretationof those impacts have varied both over time and depending on who was doing theinterpreting.

Settlercolonies

Thestandardinterpretationoftheprocessofimmigrationtosettercoloniesisthatpeoplewerebothpushedfromthehomecountrybypoverty,disease,andotherlocalconditionsandpulledtothenewcountrybydesireforabetterlifeorthehopeofbeingabletoputtheirpoliticalorreligiousbeliefsintopractice.JamesBelich(b.1956)hasdemonstratedinReplenishingtheEarth(2009)thatthispictureistoosimple.Butitisalsotruethatfromtheearly17thcenturyuntilthemid-19thcentury,peoplelefttheirhomesandtravelled,insome cases half way around the world, in the hope of being able to live in betterconditionsthanwaspossibleforthemintheirhomecountries.Somefoundabetterlifeinthenewplace;othersdidnot,andeitherstayedinthenewcountryinthesameorworsecondition as before or returned to thehomecountry.But thedreamof a better life thatdrove so many was clearly utopian, and settler colonies were all informed by utopiandreams. One illustration of this can be found in the songs immigrants sang, whichregularlydescribedtheplace theyweregoingto inutopianterms.Forexample,anIrishsong, ‘The Glorious and Free United States of America’, makes the utopian imageryexplicit:

IfyoulabourinAmerica,Inrichesyouwillroll,There’sneithertithesnortaxesthereNorrenttopressyoudown;Itsagloriousfreecountry,Towelcomeeveryman,SosailofftoAmerica,

Assoonase’eryoucan.

Andwhile not part of the original intent, settler or immigrant colonies also provided aspace for various dissidents,mostly religious, to try out their ideas, often in intentionalcommunities.AndutopianismhasbeencentraltothenationalidentitiesofNewZealandandtheUnitedStates.

Indigenousutopianism

Butthedreamsofthesettlersclashedwiththeexpectationsofthepeoplealreadylivinginthesecountriesandgenerallyproducedactualdystopiasforthem.SuchcolonizedpeoplesincludedthehighlydevelopedurbanculturesoftheAztecs,Incas,andMayans,andnon-urban cultures like the Aborigines of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand, the FirstNationsandInuitinCanada,andtheNativeAmericanIndiansinCanadaandtheUnitedStates.

All these peoples had creation myths which explained how the world and the beingspopulatingitcameabout.Inmanyofthesemyths,theearlycreationwasbetterthanwhatfollowed,andthemythsincludedanexplanationofwhatwentwrong.

Because settler colonies often systematically destroyed the cultures of the indigenousinhabitantswhilealsoslaughteringthepeople,weknowmuchlessoftheirmythsortheirdreams of a good life thanwe do about the dreams of the settlers. But in some cases,modern,recreated,andsometimesromanticized,versionsofthosedreamsexist,andrecentresearchisbeginningtotellusmoreaboutthemythsandstoriesofthesepeoples.Wearelearningmorebecauseinthepostcolonialperiodculturesthathadbeensuppressedbuthadnot actuallydisappeared arebeing revived and theold stories retold.As an anonymouscontemporaryAmericanIndianwrote:

Towalk in theOldWays is to live in the sacredmanner, to standupright, towalkstraight,torespectourbrothersandsistersofdifferentNationsanddifferentspecies.Itistoopenourselveslikeair,likesky,inordertoknow themountains, thewaters,thewind,thelightsofthesky,theplants,andthefour-legged,six-legged,no-legged,andwingedbeings.Itistokillinthesacredmanner,toknowlove,sorrow,anger,joyinthesacredmanner,andtodieinthesacredmanner.

Whilethisisaromanticizedviewofthepast,itisclearlyastatementofautopiandream.

There are utopian traditions among the Aborigines in Australia, the First Nations inCanada,theMaoriinNewZealand,andtheNativeAmericanIndiansintheUnitedStates.Andthestruggleagainstcolonialismproducedmillennialmovementswithstrongutopianelements,suchastheGhostDancemovementintheUnitedStates.Thereweredozensof

suchmovementsinSouthAmerica,andanumberamongtheMaoriinNewZealandthatstillexist, such as theRatanaChurch.And someMaori groupshave revived traditionalformsofcommunalismthattheybelieveprovidebetterlivesfortheirpeoplethancanbeachievedthroughintegrationintothelargersociety.Thus, in the settler colonies of North and South America, Africa, Australia, and NewZealand we can follow a common story of utopian settlement destroying living, vitalcultureswith their ownmyths and stories that included utopian imagery, the continueddreamingofthesettlers,theendingofcolonialism,andtheemergenceofnewdreamsforboththedescendantsofthesettlersandthedescendantsoftheoriginalinhabitants,andtherediscoveryofthedreamsoftheculturesthathadbeensuppressed.

Attimes,theculturesbeingdestroyedweregivenautopianhuebytheiroppressors.Thiswas done in the Noble Savage tradition that, while it had parallels in peoples like theScythians described by classical Greek and Romanwriters, wasmost noteworthy aftercontact with the natives of North and South America. The Noble Savage was seen ascloser to nature and, therefore, somehowpurer, simpler, and better than the supposedlycivilized.Whileobviouslyoversimplified,somecontendedthattherewasatruthhiddenintheimage.TheAmericanreligiousdissidentRogerWilliams(1603–83)reportedanIndiansaying: ‘WewearnenoClothes,havemanygods,Andyetoursinnesare lesse:YouareBarbarians,Paganswild,YourLand’stheWilderness.’

Butmostoftheutopianliteraturewrittenbyindigenouspeoplesaredystopiasdescribingtheirtreatmentbythesettlersbothatthetimeofsettlementandcontinuingtothepresent.Forexample,theNativeAmericanwriterLeslieMarmonSilko’s(b.1948)GardensintheDunes (1999) contrasts the utopia of traditionalAmerican Indian lifewith the dystopiacreatedbyUSpolicy;and‘TheFarm’(1996)byShermanAlexie(b.1966),anotherNativeAmericanwriter, describes a futureUnitedStates of concentration camps forAmericanIndians.

Involuntaryimmigration

Sometimesthesettlementprocesswasnotvoluntary.AfricanswerebroughttotheUnitedStatesandSouthAmericaasslaves,andconvictsweretransportedtoAustraliaandsomeFrenchcolonies,withtheFrenchtransportingmoreslavestotheirCaribbeancoloniesthanweretransportedtoeitherNorthorSouthAmerica.Manystayed,buttherewereanumberofslaverevoltsandtheHaitianRevolutionof1791–1804endedslaveryinthatcountry.

Thosetakentothenewplaceasslaveswererarelyinapositiontowritedowntheirvisionsofabetterlife,butthatdoesnotmeantheydidnothavethem,andtheysangsongsandtoldtales,someofwhichhavesurvived.ThebestknownarethespiritualsoftheslavesoftheSouthernUnitedStates,whichregularlypresentimagesoftheparadisetheywillwinafterthehorrorsofthislife.Lesswellknownarethestoriesofthe‘greatgoodplace’toldby the same people, stories directly parallel to themedieval Cockaigne or the tales ofabundance told during the Great Depression. Food that comes without back-breakinglabour,freedomfromauthority,andrestarecentralthemes.

Also,duetothefamine,theIrishdiasporawasofteninvoluntary,andIrelandisaspecialcasebothbecause, tomanyIrish, IrelandremainsacolonybecauseofNorthernIreland,and because, unlike most immigrants, the famine meant that it was difficult, if notimpossible, to return if thingsdidnotworkout in thenewland.Thus, the Irishwere insome ways more refugees than immigrants, and many kept moving from country tocountrybeforefinallysettlingorcomingtotheirend.

Israel/Palestine

AcountrythatisrarelylabelledasettlercolonybutclearlyisoneisIsrael.EarlyJewishutopianmaterials include the story of Eden in Genesis, the prophets, various texts notincluded in the Christian Old Testament including some apocalyptic books and textsdescribing thecomingofamessiah,andthewithdrawnreligiouscommunity inQumranand a similar community called the Therapeutae in Egypt. And in the 12th century, aJewishauthor,JudahHaLevi,producedabook,Kuzari:TheBookofArgumentandProof,that, along with two Islamic books from the same period,Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and TheTreatise of Kamil, is among the earliest works describing someone living alone on anisolatedisland,anideathatlaterbecamepopularwithDanielDefoe’sRobinsonCrusoe.

ManyJewsbelievethattheyhavesimplyresettledlandthatwasoncetheirsandthatwasgiventothembytheirGod,andthisisreflectedinagrowingutopianisminIsraelonthereligious right which justifies their taking over houses and land owned, sometimes forgenerations,byPalestinians.But renewedJewishsettlementbeganaspartofa seriesofexplicitlyutopianprojectssuchasthewritingsofTheodorHerzl(1860–1904),includingDer Judenstaat (The Jewish State; 1896) andAltneuland (Oldnewland; 1901), and theestablishmentofthefirstkibbutzin1920.Anditisthekibbutzmovementthathasmostinfluenced 20th- and 21st-century utopianism, with the successes and failures of thekibbutzmovementinfluencingintentionalcommunitiesaroundtheworld.

On theotherhand,mostPalestinianutopianism takesoneof two forms.For some, it issimply the desire of Palestinians for a land of their own or the return of the land theybelieve was theirs after having owned it for many, sometimes hundreds of, years. Forothers,theirutopianismissimplyapartofIslamism.IhavebeentoldoftheexistenceofsomePalestinianutopiasfromthefirsthalfofthe20thcentury,butnoneappearstoexistinanyEuropeanorNorthAmericanlibrary.

Independence

Some settler colonies opted for complete independence, like the USA, Brazil, and theSpanish colonies of Latin and South America, and some opted to keep ties, graduallyloosening,with the colonial power, likeAustralia, Canada, andNewZealand. But in afascinating twist, both the independence movements where they existed and the

movementsforrecognitionandrightsinthesettlercolonieshaveusedthelanguageofthehome country and the settlers, including their utopian language, against them. It wasstandard practice to say something like, ‘If you believewhat you say you believe, youcannotcontinuetotreatusasyouhave.Weareonlyaskingforwhatyousaytoberight.’Asa result, both indigenousandcolonialutopiashaveplayeda role in thepostcolonialperiod.

TheUnitedStates

Oneoftheveryfirstsuccessfulcolonieswasonewhereeconomicfactorswerenotamongthefirstprioritiesofthecolonists.ThatwasthecolonyestablishedatPlymouthin1620inwhat became the state ofMassachusetts.There, religious considerationswere foremost;thecolonistswantedtobeabletopractisethewayoflifethattheybelievedtheirreligionrequired.Forexample, JohnWinthrop (1588–1649), the firstgovernorofMassachusettsBayColony,saidthatthePuritanshadtravelledtoAmericatobuilda‘cittyuponahill’.WhileWinthropwasactuallywarninghispeoplethat‘theeyesofallpeopleareuponus’andmeanthisstatementasawarningagainstfailure,itisnowreadasastatementofearlyAmericanutopianism.

Thefreedomtopractisetheirreligiousbeliefsdidnotextendtoallowingotherstopractisetheir beliefs.TheSociety of Friends, orQuakers,who settled inPennsylvaniawere thefirstcolonistswhosettled for religious reasonswhopractised religious freedom inwhatbecame theUnited States. The third colony thatwas established primarily for religiousreasonswasMaryland,whichwassettledbyRomanCatholics.

ThecoloniesofSouthCarolinaandGeorgiaincludedspecificutopianplans,althoughtheywerenotcarriedout.InSouthCarolina,LordAshley,the1stEarlofShaftesbury(1621–83), collaborating with the philosopher and political theorist John Locke (1632–1704),designedwhattheycalledthe‘FundamentalConstitutions’,whichproposedasemi-feudalaristocracy with a new American nobility. In Georgia, the Scotsman Sir RobertMontgomery (c. 1680–1731) developed a plan for a utopia called Azilia, and Germanmissionary Christian Priber (1697–1744) tried to establish utopian communities amongtheIndians.Later,theactualfoundingofthecolonyofGeorgiaundertheBritishgeneralJamesOglethorpe(1686–1785)wasdesignedforpaupersanddebtorsaswellastomakeaprofitforthelandowners.

The other early American colonies were primarily designed to make a profit for theholdersofthelandgrants,butholdingoutthehopeofabetterlifeforthesettlerswasoneaspectofhowtheyintendedtoprofit.Aswithmostsuchsettlement,thatbetterlifewastobe the result of very hard work for many years as the settler slowly accumulated themoneythatwouldpermitthepurchaseoflandortheestablishmentofashoportrade.

Many early US immigrants came as what were called ‘indentured servants’ who hadcontractedthemselvestoacertainnumberofyears’serviceinexchangefortheirpassageover.Whilesomebossesdidtheirbesttoensurethatsuchserviceneverended,andsomeindentured servants ran away (the seemingly empty land to the west was always a

temptation),formostthesystemworkedasintendedandafterworkingofftheirindenture,they worked on their own behalf until they could buy land or set themselves upindependentlyinashoportrade.Ofcourse,somefailed,buttherewererealopportunitiesforbetterment.Similarpracticesexistedinmanycoloniesbecausethecostofpassagewaswellbeyondtheresourcesofthepeoplemostdesperatetoleave.

Ofcourse,somewerebetteroffandthereforeabletoestablishthemselvesmoreeasily.Forexample,J.HectorStJohndeCrèvecoeur(1735–1813)settledinwhatbecametheUnitedStates in 1759, adopted the name JohnHector St John on becoming a citizen,married,bought a farm, and set about to farm and to write about the experience. In 1782, hepublishedLettersfromanAmericanFarmer(withexpandedversionsin1784and1787)inwhich he described America for a European audience in nearly utopian terms.Crèvecoeur’sLetterswaslesspositiveinthelatereditions,butsuchutopiandescriptionsbysettlersbecameastandardfareandhelpedattractimmigrantstomostsettlercolonies.In some cases, land agents published fictional descriptions and fictional letters home toattractimmigrants.

The early utopias in the settler colonies often dealt with practical issues like thedistributionoflandandthestructureofgovernment.Attheendofthecolonialperiod,astheAmericancoloniesseparatedfromBritainandbecametheUnitedStatesofAmerica,three documentswere created, two ofwhich have served to inspire utopias both in theUSA and elsewhere. The first, the Declaration of Independence, asserted liberty andequality and justified revolution. The second of the three documents, the Articles ofConfederation,islargelyforgottenandhasgenerallybeenwrittenoffasafailurebecauseit provided for only a weak central government and left most power in the individualstates, but it was under the Articles that the USA successfully fought the Revolution,established diplomatic relations, and expanded the territory of the country. The thirddocument, theUnitedStatesConstitution,usuallycalled the firstwrittenconstitutionbyignoring the Articles, has served as a model for many other constitutions. After theConstitutionwasratified,tenamendments,knownastheBillofRights,wereadded,andthoseamendmentshavebecomeacentralutopiandocumentintheUSA.Theideathatthestructureofgovernmentandtherightsanddutiesofbothcitizensandgovernmentsshouldbespelledouthasinspiredmanyutopianconstitutionsandbillsofrightsaswellasmanythathavebeenimplemented.

8.TheDeclarationofIndependencedeclaredtheindependenceofthethirteen

AmericancoloniesfromBritishrule.Itassertedthepeoplehave‘certainunalienablerights’andassertsarightofrevolution

Canada,Australia,andNewZealand

InCanada,therelationbetweentheEnglishandtheFrenchwasparticularlyimportantinearlyCanadianutopiasandcontinuestobeacentralissueinFrenchCanada.Forexample,an earlyEnglish-languageCanadian utopia,TheYoung Seigneur; or,Nation-Making byWilfridChâteauclair(1888)usesahalfEnglishandhalfFrenchpseudonymandisdirectlyconcerned with English–French relations. And the very first French-Canadian utopia,‘Monvoyageàlalune’,publishedunderthepseudonymNapoléonAubin(1839),focusesonindependencefromEnglishCanada.

InAustralia,aconstantthemewaswhattodowiththevastemptymiddleofthecountryandthegenerallyharshlandscape,withconstantfiresanddroughtalternatingwithfloods–issuesthatstillexist.Thisproducedwhatmaybethefirstdystopiaofglobalwarming,‘The Fool and His Inheritance’ (1911) by James Edmond (1859–1933), a long-servingeditoroftheAustralianjournalTheBulletin.

New Zealand utopias, such as Alexander Joyce’s (1840/41–1927) Land Ho!! AConversationof1933(1881),dealtmostoftenwithlandredistributionandothermeansofachieving greater equality. At the same time, many early New Zealand utopias simplydepicted New Zealand itself as a utopia. For example, early utopian poems like ‘TheAvon’ (1854) by Henry Jacobs (1824–1901) and ‘There’s Nae Place Like Otago Yet’(1861) by John Barr of Craigielee (1809–89) both depict parts of New Zealand,Canterbury andOtago respectively, as ready-madeutopias, and that approachcontinuedwellintothelate20thcentury.

LatinandSouthAmerica

PoliticalliteratureinLatinandSouthAmericawasinitiallyconcernedwithindependenceand, although therewere some exceptions, specifically utopian literaturewas relativelyslowtoappear.Whenitdid,itwasconcernedwiththesameissuesasintheothersettlercolonies,withdisparitiesofwealthandpovertybeingthemostcommon.Astimepassed,the issues initially changed little, but the sophistication of the utopias grew alongwiththeirnumbers,andinthelate20thcenturyindigenouspeoplesalsobegantowriteutopias,andtheymostlywrotedystopiasfictionallydepictingtheirtreatmentbythesettlers.

During the period of colonization, relations between the colonizers and the indigenouspopulationwerefrequentlyviolent,buttherewereattempts,sometimesbaseddirectlyonMore’sUtopia,todevelopbetterrelations.Whiletheseattemptslooklesspositivethrough21st-century eyes than theydid to their founders, theywere examples of a paternalisticutopianism that, despite differences in the actual institutions, had similarities toMore’svision.

Bartolomé de las Casas (1484–1566), a Spanish Dominican, wrote Remedios para lasIndias(MemorialofRemediesfortheIndies;1516),whichmayhaveinfluencedMore.Healso tried to establish a community inVenezuela thatwould have had Spanish farmersteachingcurrentagricultural techniques to thenatives,whowouldhavebeenpaida fairwagerather thanbeingenslaved,whichwasthenorm.TheideawastoChristianizeandcivilizetheIndianswhileimprovingrelationsbetweenthecolonizersandthecolonized.

In1552and1553,VascodeQuiroga(1470–1565),aSpanishlaymanwhowasappointedthefirstbishopofMichoacáninMexico,establishedpueblo-hospitalsorcommunaltownsinSantaFedeMexiconearMexicoCityandSantaFedelaLagunaoutsideMichoacán.ThecommunitiesweredirectlybasedonhisreadingofMore’sUtopiaandwereintendedto improve the lives of the Indians while Christianizing them. Both communities, butparticularlytheoneoutsideMichoacán,lastedforsometimeandweresuccessfulonboththeireconomicandreligiousdimensions.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Jesuits established ‘reductions’, or communitiesdesigned toChristianize,govern,andeducate thepeoplesof thearea.Such ‘reductions’wereestablishedinArgentina,Bolivia,Brazil,andParaguayandexistedascommunitiesuntiltheJesuitswereforcedoutoftheseareas.

SouthAfrica

SouthAfricawas late inproducingutopian literatureandwhen itcame itwasprimarilyconcerned with racial issues, with much such literature justifying and defending racialseparation. Examples include James Marshall and Margaret Scott Marshall’s 1960 (ARetrospect)(1912)inEnglishandNadiegeliefde(1972)byKarelSchoemaninAfrikaans.

Butotherspresentedamorecomplexpicture,andNadineGordimer(b.1923,NobelPrizeforLiterature 1991)wrote a number of novels aboutwhat she called ‘the interregnum’betweenwhite dominance and the coming change thatweremost often set a shortwayinto the future. These novels, like her 1981 July’sPeople and 1987A Sport of Nature,depict the entire rangeof racial relations inSouthAfrica, sometimes expanded tootherparts of Africa, but stressing that change was coming and that, while the direction ofchangewasproblematic,thecurrentdystopiacouldbeimproved.

Whenthechangecame,thefirstissuetobedealtwithwastheneedforanewconstitution,and many South Africans believe that the document is truly utopian even if itsimplementation has not been, and indeed is seen as dystopian by many. Today, manySouth Africans, black, white, and coloured, are deeply unhappy with the pace and/ordirectionofchange,andafewpost-ApartheidSouthAfricanworkshavebeenpublishedthatareconcernedwith the future.Most, as in the restof theworld, aredystopian, andsome, such as South Africa 1994–2004 (1991) published under the pseudonym TomBarnard,Jacobwitha‘C’(1993)byEdwardLurie,andTheMaskofFreedom(1994)byPeterWilhelm (b. 1943), present a future in which SouthAfrica has reverted to racialseparation.

Postcolonialutopianism

Althoughvery fewcolonies in theoldsensestillexist, immigrationcontinuesaspeoplesearch for better lives. The fact that today’s immigrants are often disparagingly called‘economic immigrants’ by the descendants of earlier immigrants ignores the fact thatimmigrationalmostalwayshadaneconomicdimensioneventhoughinspecificinstancesotherfactorswereofequalorgreaterimportance.

Postcolonial utopianism in settler colonies is somewhat different from postcolonialutopianism in those colonies that were primarily designed to exploit their human andmaterialresources.Whilethedescendantsoftheoriginalinhabitantswereusingthesettlerutopiastojustifychange,insomecountriesthedescendantsofthesettlerswerebeginningto learn about and incorporate the myths, including the utopian ones, of the originalinhabitantsintheirnewutopias.Intheexploitativecolonies,thesameusewasmadeofthepolitical traditions of the colonial power to justify independence, but the utopias thatdeveloped, which are discussed in the next chapter, are directly concerned with localissues,particularlytheproblemsthatcamewithindependence.

Utopianexperiments

Settler colonies became places of utopian experimentation. From as early as 1659,intentional communitieswere establishedwithin theAmerican colonies.While the firstsuchcommunitywasfoundedinDelawarebytheDutchmanPieterPlockhoy(c.1629–c.1700) and practised religious freedom, most of the earliest ones were founded byGermans,liketheEphratacommunityinPennsylvania,andwerereligiouswithoutinternalreligiousfreedom.

The1917constitutioninMexicopromisedtorestoreasystemofcommunallandusethatMexicanstracedbacktotheAztecs.Intheejidos,thegovernmentownsthelandbutitisusedcommunallyand,underreformsinstitutedinthe1930s,thefarmershadarightofuseaslongasthelandwasactuallyused,andthatrightcouldbepassedontotheirchildren.Theconstitutionalrightwasabolishedinthe1990sbutsomeejidosstillexist.

There have never been a lot of South American intentional communities, but suchcommunities have existed or exist today in Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, andParaguay. Colonia Dignidad in Chile was a dystopian community established in 1961whose leader was jailed for child sex abuse and who apparently allowed the militaryregime under General Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) to use its facilities to torture itsopponents.

Paraguayhasattractedanumberofcommunitiestosettletherefromothercountries.Inthelate19thcentury,NuevaGermaniawasestablishedwiththeideaofcreatingapureAryancommunity;descendantsstillliveinthearea.Aboutthesametime,theAustralianlabourleader William Lane (1861–1917) and his followers established New Australia andCosme.While thecommunitiesdidnot last long,andLaneandmanyothersreturned toAustralia, there are descendants of theAustralians still living in the region.And in the1920s,Mennonites fromEuropeandNorthAmerica settled inParaguayandestablishedcommunitiesthatstillexist.

Australia became a centre for the garden city movement, which originated with theEnglish utopia To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), better known asGarden Cities of To-Morrow (1902), by Ebenezer Howard (1850–1928). Garden citieswereestablishedinmanycountries,suchasLetchworthGardenCityandWelwynGardenCityinEnglandandRadburn,NewJersey,intheUSA.ButAustraliaappearstohavehadmore thananyothercountry,andalsohasmore intentionalcommunitiespercapita thananycountryotherthanIsrael.NewZealandalsohasaverystrongtraditionofintentionalcommunities.

Communities come in all types, including very tightly closed-off religious communitiessuchasGloriavale inNewZealandandsecularcommunitiesopen tonewmembersandvisitsfromoutsiders,likeTwinOaksintheUSA,andtheyvaryinsizefromunderadozenmembers tohundredsofmembers.Therearecommunities that trace theirancestrybackhundredsofyears,existingcommunitiesthathavebeeninthesameplacenearlyahundredyears,andthosefoundedlastweek,withmanyproposedcommunitieslookingtobecomeestablished.

Chapter4Utopianisminothertraditions

People on theNorthern Island ‘…make no use of agriculture or any other art orprofession.AtreenamedPadesàgrowsinthatfortunateislandonwhich,insteadoffruit,areseenhangingpreciousgarmentsofvariouscolours,whereofthenativestakewhateverpleasesthembest.Inlikemannertheyneednotcultivatethesoil,norsow,nor reap; neither do they fish, nor hunt; because the same tree naturally producesthem an excellent kind of rice without any husk. Whenever they wish to takenourishment,theyhaveonlytoplacethisriceuponacertaingreatstone,fromwhichaflameinstantlyissues,dressestheirfood,andthengoesoutofitself.Whiletheyeattheirrice,variouskindsofexquisitemeats,readydressed,appearupontheleavesofsome trees, from which everyone takes at will. The meal over the remainsimmediatelydisappear.’

(BurmeseBuddhisttext,quotedbyFatherSangermano)

Take a small country with a small population. The sage could bring it about thatthoughtherewerecontrivanceswhichsavedlabourtenorahundredtimesover,thepeoplewouldnotuse them.Hecouldmake thepeople ready todie twiceover fortheircountryratherthanemigrate.Theremightstillbeboatsandchariotsbutnoonewouldrideinthem.Thereoughtstillbeweaponsofwarbutnoonewoulddrillwiththem. He could bring it about that ‘the people should go back (from writing) toknottedcords,becontentedwiththeirfood,pleasedwiththeirclothes,satisfiedwiththeirhomes,andhappyintheirworkandcustoms.Thecountryoverthebordermightbesonearthatonecouldhearthecockscrowingandthedogsbarkinginit,butthepeoplewouldgrowoldanddiewithouteveroncetroublingtogothere.’

(TaoTeChing,quotedbyJosephNeedham)

KrishanKumar,theauthorofUtopiaandAnti-UtopiainModernTimes(1987),arguesthatutopiasareaphenomenonoftheWest,thattheyemergedfromChristianity,andthattherearenonon-WesternutopiantraditionsthatdidnotarisefromcontactwithWesternutopias.Today, most scholars disagree and argue that such traditions existed in most cultures,noting such traditions in Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist China, Buddhist and HinduIndia, the Islamic countries of theMiddleEast,Buddhist SoutheastAsia, andBuddhist

andShintoJapan.

ThomasMoreinventedaliterarygenre,buttherearenumeroustextsbothintheWestandoutside it that pre-date More’sUtopia that describe a non-existent society identifiablybetterthanthecontemporarysociety.Thusit isclearthatutopiantraditionsthatpre-dateMore existed outside the West. Following contact with Western utopianism, all theseareas, plus the cultures ofAfrica, began to produce utopias using themodel thatMoreinvented but adapting it to their specific circumstances. As a result, their utopias bothaddresstheirownissuesandareoftensignificantlydifferentinformandcontentfromtheutopiasthatdevelopedintheWestafter1516.

Ascanbeseenfromthequotationsattheheadofthechapter,althoughthereareimportantcultural differences, there are similarities among the myths. There are two commonutopianformswithparallelsintheWestthatarefoundinmostcultures:anidealsocietyinthepast and someversionofparadise. Inparticular, the imageof therebeing autopianperiodinthepastisverycommonandcentraltoutopianisminmostcultures.InBurma,beforeitbecameMyanmar,boththeconstitutionandthelawcodeincludedprefacesthatexplicitly connected themodern legal systemwith the utopia thatwas believed to haveexistedinthepast.Thus,inBurmatheutopianpastremainedatouchstoneoflifeuntilthelate20thcentury.

ThegreatestdifferencebetweentheChristianutopianpastofEdenandtheothermythsisthatthereisnoFall.Thereisalwayssomeexplanationforwhytheutopianpastended,butneverthesortofcompletebreakwhichtheFallrepresents.Asaresult,utopianismisnotheretical.TheothermythsalsodifferfromtheGreekmythofthegoldenageinthatintheGreekmyththereisaseriesofseparatecreationsthatleadtothedevelopmentofthenon-utopianpresent,while in theothercultures thereareno separatecreationsandnocleanbreak.Thismeansthattheutopianpastisnotnecessarilylostandcanbeusedasamodelfor the future.This isparticularly important inChinabecause thebelief is thatboth theConfucian and Taoist utopias had once actually existed, and therefore they could existagainiftheprinciplesonwhichtheywerebasedarerightlyunderstoodandthenputintopractice.

China

Chineseutopianism is thebestknownof the traditionsoutside theWest. It has roots inConfucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, followed by Neo-Confucianism and, in morepopular form, various dissident groups. Chinese utopian fiction became popular in the19thand20thcenturies,althoughbeginningearlier,anddystopianliteraturedevelopedinthe 20th century. And there was a strong utopian element in the Communism ofMaoZedong,eventhoughtheresultofMao’spolicieswasdystopianformany.

EarlyConfucian,Taoist,andBuddhistutopianismdifferedinthattheTaoistutopia,whichisoftencalled ‘TheGreatPeace’,was initiallyopposed togovernment inall formsandcouldbecalledanarchist–andTaoismistodayoftencalledanarchist.Allthreetraditionslookbacktoatimeinthepastwhenrulershipwasnotnecessaryandpeoplelivedsimply

inharmonywithnature.Thisutopiagradually came to focuson theneed forwisemen(and here the masculine is correct) to provide guidance, and Confucians in particularalwayslookedbacktothisperiodasanidealtoberecreatedinthepresent.OneelementoftheConfucianutopiawasastressonself-improvement,andthisemphasisandtheconcernwith wise men were the bases for the role education played in Chinese society as theprimarymeansofupwardmobility (although theconcernwithwisdomwas replacedbytheabilitytopassexams).One other early utopian proposal was the ‘well-field’ system, which proposed theegalitariandistributionof landandwasevenpresentedashavingexistedin thepastandcapableofbeingputintopracticeagain.Theideaisthatifeveryonehasapieceofland,everyonewillbeable to support themselves.While the ‘well-field’ systemprobablydidnotexist in thepast, itwasseriouslypresentedasapossibilitybetweenthelateBCEandtheearlyCE.

TheBookofPoetry, theearliest recordofChinese literature,containsapoem,generallycalled‘BigRat’,thatsuggeststhatthepeoplewillbeablefindabetterplacetolivethanwheretheycurrentlylive.ButtheclassicChineseutopiais‘ThePeachBlossomSpring’byT’aoYüan-ming(365–427).Inthisstory,onedayafishermanwentupanunfamiliarstream and came across a peach orchard in full bloom on both sides of the stream;intoxicatedbyitsbeauty,hecontinuedupthestreamuntilhecametoasmallcavefromwhich the stream issued.He entered the cave and squeezing through the small openingcameoutonanopenplaindottedwithsimplehousesandfinefieldsandponds,andalltheinhabitants that he observedwere clearly happy.They tookhimhome and fedhimandtold him that they had escaped from the turmoil of the earlyCh’in dynasty, about 600yearsbeforethetaleisset,andtheirancestorshadsettledinthisisolatedplaceandkeptthemselvescutofffromtherestoftheworld.Afterstayingforsomedays,thefishermanchosetoleave.Hewasencouragednottotellanyoneoutsideabouttheplace.Whenhegothome,hetoldtheauthoritiesoftheplace,butnoonewaseverabletofindit.

This story influenced later Chinese literature and was reproduced in Japan, with theJapanesewordfor‘PeachBlossomSpring’comingtobetheequivalentofShangri-la.InChina,an8th-centurybook,Kuang-ichi,useda similarapproach todescribevisits toalandofTaoist immortalsandagroupofwomenwhohadescapedfromthe labourgangbeingforcedtobuildtheGreatWallandwhoestablishedautopiansocietyinanisolatedvalleywheretheybecameimmortal.

Chineseutopianfictiondevelopedinthe18thcentury,withthemostfamousworkbeingFlowers in the Mirror (1828) by Li Ju-chen (1760?–1830?). This book is a bit likeGulliver’sTravelsinthatanumberofcountriesarevisited,suchasChun-tzuKuo,ortheCountryofGentlemen,andTa-jenKuo,ortheCountryofGreatMen,butthevisitthathasgainedthemostattentionisthattoNu-erhKuo,ortheCountryofWomen,wherewomenholdallthepowerandwomenareeducatedinthesamewaymenwereelsewhere.Whilethe‘CountryofWomen’isseenasanearlystatementonwomen’srights,itwasnotuntilthe20thcenturythatanumberoffeministutopiaswerepublishedinChina.

Inthe19thandtheearly20thcenturies,ChineseutopiastendedtofocusonthedesirabilityofadoptingWesterntechnology,butkeepingChinesemoralitytosoftentheimpactofthetechnology,andinthe20thcenturydystopiasdevelopedthatrejectedWesterntechnology.

AndthesocialphilosopherK’angYu-wei(1858–1927)wroteanumberofutopianworksaccepting Western technology and describing a democratic world state based on far-reaching equality. There would be a world parliament which would, among its normallegislative duties, develop a universal language and oversee the gradual reduction ofarmed forces throughout the world. Capitalism, and all private property, would beabolished, andK’ang’s utopia stressed the need to change the status of women, whichwouldrequire,amongotherthings,theabolitionoflifelongmarriageandtheinstitutionoflimited-termcontractsbetweenmenandwomen.

9.ConfuciuspresentingtheyoungGautamaBuddhatoLaozi,theauthorofthe

TooTeChing,sothatherearedepictedthefoundersofthethreewaysofthinkingthatdominatedancientChina

Inthe20thcentury,anumberofauthorspresentedidealconstitutionsforafutureChina,suchasHsinChung-kuoWei-laiChi(TheFutureofNewChina;1902)byLiangChi-chiao(1873–1929); Shih-tzu Hou (The Lion Roars; 1905–6) by Ch’en Tien-hua; and theanonymousHsienChihHun (TheSoulof theConstitution; 1907).Also in 20th-centuryChina,MaoZedongwasclearlyutopianinhisdesiretotransformChinesesocietyalongthe lines of his vision for it, and it can be argued that Mao’s Communism was bothMarxistandrootedinConfucianism.

India

ThefundamentaltextsoftraditionalIndianreligionspointtoagoldenageinthepastandtracethegradualchangesandlapsesinhumanbehaviourthatleadtothegrowthofsocialdifferences and the need for rulership. And these descriptions of periods of peace andprosperityinthepast,althoughincludingelementsoffantasysuchasever-renewingcrops,arebasictoreligious,social,andpoliticalmovementstoday.

Inthelate19thandearly20thcenturies,twoIndianauthors,HaraPrasadShastri(1853–1931),amanandaHindu,andRokeyaSakhawatHossain(1880–1932),awomanandaMuslim,publishedutopias.Shastri’sValmikirJaya(TheTriumphofValmiki)wasprobablypublishedinthelate1870sorearly1880sandinEnglishin1909andpresentstheHinduearthlyparadiseasamodernutopia.Hossain’s‘Sultana’sDream’(1905)waswrittenandpublished in English and herPadmarag (1924) was written and published in Bengali.Botharefeministutopias.‘Sultana’sDream’describesLadyland,acountryofwomen,andPadmarag,whichismostlyconcernedwiththeterribleconditionsofIndianwomenofthetime,describesacommunityofwomenwhoprovideaschoolforgirls,arefugeforabusedwomen,andahospitalforfemalepatients.AschoolforgirlsthatHossainfoundedin1910stillexists.

MohandasK.Gandhi(1869–1948)wasautopianandusedtheHindunotionofRamaraja,or the rule of Rama, the golden age, as a means of communicating his ideas. GandhilookedbacktowhathebelievedtobethestructureofearlyIndiancivilizationasthebasisoftheutopiahehopedtobringaboutinmodernIndia.

Gandhidirectlycontrastedhisvisionof thepast/futurewith thedystopia,bothcapitalistandsocialist,thathesawinthematerialistandcompetitiveWestbecause,forGandhi,thefoundationofutopiamust restonspirituality.Gandhi’sutopiawas tobebasedonsmallcommunitiesinwhicheachofthemaingroups,orvarna,ofIndiansocietywouldfulfilitsdefinedroleincooperationwithalloftheothergroups.Thissmallcommunitywouldbegovernedbythevillageelders,orpanchayat,speakingfortheentirecommunity.Gandhi’smost radical revisionof this cooperative structurewas that itwould include rather thanexcludetheDalit,or‘untouchables’,andDalitswouldbeguaranteedseatsinparliamentby the Indianconstitution.Lifewouldbe simple,with allpeople collectivelyproducingwhattheyneed.Gandhihimselffamouslywovecloth.

The principles behind Gandhi’s utopia were, first, Swaraj, or self-control/individualdiscipline,withanationachievingSwarajtotheextentthatitsindividualcitizensdid.ThesecondprinciplewasAhimsa, or a respect for life.Thirdwassatyagraha,whichcanbetranslated as ‘truth force’, and by which Gandhi meant the positive practice of non-violence.Andfourthwas trusteeshipsocialism,orasocialismwithoutclassdifferences,andinthisGandhiwasaforerunnerofsocialisttheoristssuchasLéopoldSédarSenghor(1906–2001)ofSenegal,JuliusK.Nyerere(1922–99)ofTanzania,andUNu(1907–95)ofBurma,with the IndianversionbeingdevelopedbyGandhi’s followerVinobaBhave(1895–1982).

Today,Indiahasautopianmovement that isclose to thecentresofpoliticalpower.The

HinduvatamovementwantstodestroythereligiouspluralityofIndiaandestablish,orasthemovementwouldputit,re-establish,IndiaasapurelyHindunation.ThetargetsoftheHinduvata movement are Muslims and Christians, and it has used legal and politicalpoweraswellasviolenceagainstthesetargets.

Japan

There is realdisagreementover theexistenceofanativeJapaneseutopianism.Japanesemyth either does or does not include utopias. If it does, the utopias were or were notborrowed from China. And the argument continues to the present day, with Japaneseutopiaseitherslavishlyimitativeorveryoriginal.

Theanswertotheproblemis,assooften,foundbetweentheextremes.ThereisastrongJapaneseutopiantradition,someofwhichwasdeeplyinfluencedbyChina,andlaterbyEurope and the USA, but a substantial amount of it was radically modified to fit theJapanesesituation.Forexample, thefirstJapanese translationofThomasMore’sUtopiaasOnGoodGovernment(1892)wasnotinfactatranslationbutanadaptationtofitJapanandwasdesignedtobeusedbytheJapanesetoinspiresocialchange.

TheJapanesewordforutopiaisriso-kyo,whichderivedfromanearlierwordtokoyo,oraworldthatexistsforever.Tokoyowasusedasearlyasthe8thcenturytodescribetheTaoistworldofimmortals,whichinbothChineseandJapanesetraditionshasbeenpresentedasautopia.AndTokoyonoKunireferstothefifthpartoftheShintocosmoswhichislocatedacrosstheseasandisutopian.AndthereisaJapanesetraditionoflookingtothepastforutopiainthehopeofrecreatingitinthefuture.

JapanwasdeeplyinfluencedbyBuddhismaswellasTaoism,butbothweremodifiedinJapan.CertainaspectsofTaoismwereincorporatedintoShinto,andJapandevelopeditsownversionofBuddhism,ZenBuddhism,whichwaslaterinfluentialintheWest,whereit is considered the most sophisticated form of Buddhism. The Zen ethos is oftenrepresentedintheWestbytheausterityandsimplicityofastonegarden.SusanJ.Napier,a scholarof Japanese literatureatTuftsUniversity,hasargued that there isa traditionalJapaneseaestheticutopia,whichcanevenbefoundinthatclassicofJapaneseliterature,TheTaleofGenji(11thcentury).

10.TheZengardensdifferfrommostgardensinbeingcomposedprimarilyof

stonesandsand.ThegardensreflectaJapaneseartform,andthemaintenanceofthegardenandtheprocessofrakingithelpsthemonksconcentrateandmeditate

Others have argued that the Japanese art of ukiyo can be seen as an aesthetic utopiadepictingfleetingpleasuresandephemeralbeauty.

At the same time, a more traditional Buddhism can be found in Japanese Buddhistparadises,whichincludeextremelycomplexcities.SomeJapaneseBuddhism,likesomeIndianandChineseBuddhism,wasbasedontheexpectationof theMirokuorMaitreya,thefutureBuddhawhowillcomeatsomefuturedatetorevitalizeBuddhism.

Onepopular story, ‘Taketorimonogatari’ or ‘TheTaleof theBambooCutter’, from thelate9thorearly10thcentury,inwhichavisitorfromthemoonrewardsahumanforhisassistance, is often considered an early Japanese utopia. But the most common earlyJapaneseutopiasareworksinfluencedbythePeachBlossomSpring,whichwasadaptedslightlyinJapan.Forexample,in‘TheStoryofUrashimaTaró’,afisherboysavesaturtlefromother boys and is rewardedwith a trip to a paradise-likeworld.Onhis return, hediscoversthathehasbeengoneforagesratherthanthefewdayshethought,whichisastandardfeatureofsuchtalesinmostcultures.

Thus, thereare traditional Japanesemythswithutopiancontent andat least a fewearlyJapanesetaleswithsomeutopiancontent,bothderivedfromChinesesourcesbutmodifiedinJapan.ButmostJapaneseutopiashavebeenpublishedaftercontactwithEuropeandtheUSA,andaJapaneseutopianliteraturedidnotemergequickly.Inthe17thcentury,therewasaslightpiecebyIharaSaikaku(1642–93)calledTheLifeofanAmorousMan(1682)which,whilepredominantlydepictingagroupofmenwholivedsolelyforpleasure,endswith themgoing in searchof the ‘IsleofNyogo’, an isolated island inhabited solelybystrongwomen.Inthe18thcentury, therewerevarioustravelfantasies, includingat leastonebasedonSwift’sGulliver’sTravels.AndAndōShōeki(1701–58)includedasectioninhisShizenshin’eidō(1775)thatdescribesasimple,natural,self-sufficientutopia.

Inthelate19thcentury,undertheinfluenceofthepopularnovelsofJulesVerne(1828–

1905)andthenofH.G.Wells,Japanesesciencefictionbegantodevelop,firstaspoliticalnovelsprojecting thefutureandthenas technological futures, initiallyprimarilyutopianandthen,aselsewhere,dystopian,with,insomecases,attacksontheWestastheultimatedystopia.Most recently, Japanesemanga (graphic novels) frequently depict a dystopianfutureor,muchmorerarely,apositiveutopianone.

Islam

Historically,Islamhasalimitedutopiantradition,butwithtwobasicutopias,paradiseandtheearlyMuslimcommunityatMedina.TheMedinaperiodofpeacebeforethemovetoMeccaandtheneedtofighttodefendthefaithisthegoldenageofIslam.Infact,someMuslim scholars, such as the Sudanese politician and theologian Mahmoud MohamedTaha(1909–1985),argue that theQu’ranshouldbereadas reflecting twoverydifferentperiods,Medina andMecca,with theMedina texts themost important.While this is adecidedlyminorityviewpoint, theperiod inMedina,before thewarfareand theschismsthat created the two major sects of Sunni and Shiite, as well as a number of smallersplintergroups,playsaspecialroleintheIslamicimagination.

TheRuba’iyat of Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) has been described as the first Persianutopia and in the best-knownEnglish translation, by Edward Fitzgerald, that is a gooddescription.Well-knownpassageslike‘ABookofVersesunderneaththeBough,AJugofWine,aLoafofBread–andThouBesidemesingingintheWilderness–Oh,WildernesswereParadisenow!’giveusapleasure-orientedutopia.ButFitzgeraldadaptedratherthantranslated, andverses suchas thatquoteddonot reflect thewholebook,which ismorelikeEcclesiasteswithitsemphasisonthefactofdeathastheendofallourpleasures,andwhile there are passages in The Ruba’iyat that stress pleasure and sexual desire, theemphasisisontheoblivionfoundinwine,amostun-Islamicemphasis.

TwootherworksfromroughlythesametimemoreaccuratelyreflectIslamicbeliefs.HayyIbnYaqzan:APhilosophical Tale, from around 1150, and TheTreatise of Kamil on theProphet’sBiography, from about 100 years later, use the device of a child alone on anisolatedislandtodemonstratethatthehumanmindcanitselfdeducereligioustruths,thosetruthsbeingtheessentialsofIslam.

Today,Islam,whileoftenseenbyoutsidersasasingle,coherentbeliefsystem,isinfactdeeplydivided,withliberal,feminist,andevensomegayandlesbianMuslimsarguingforthe interpretation of the Qu’ran that supports their position at one extreme, andfundamentalIslamistsarguingfortheirinterpretationattheother,withthevastmajorityofbelievers in the middle. While Islamists disagree among themselves, they all want toestablishtheShari’a(Islamiclaw)asthebasisofthesocialorder,andtheyarethemostutopian Muslims today. The vision of the Islamic Republic developed for Iran byAyatollahRuhollahKhomeini(1900–89)andbytheTalibanforAfghanistanwereclearlyutopian,andsomeofKhomeini’spublications,suchasKashfal-Asrar(TheUnveilingofSecrets;1944)andHokomat-Eslami(TheIslamicGovernment;1971),whiletreatises,givedetaileddescriptionsoftheidealIslamicsocietyashesawit,andofcoursehethengained

thepowertotrytoputhisbeliefsintoeffect.

ThereislittleevidenceoffictionaldescriptionsoftheIslamistutopia,butthereareatleasttwosuchworks.Al-bu’dal-kh mas(TheFifthDimension)isaplaywritteninanEgyptianprison,wheretheauthorhadbeensentforhisinvolvementwiththeMuslimBrotherhood.The utopia appears to be based on the teachings of SayyidQutb (1906–66), one of thetheoristsofIslamism.Theotherwork,Barnameh-yeFada’ian-Eslam(TheRevolutionaryProgrammeofFada’ian-eElam;1950)bytheIranianSeyyedMojtabaNavvabSafavi(b.1924, executed 1955) outlined an ideal Islamic social system. It is a very simple, evensimplistic,amalgamofIslamictheologyandmoralrules.

Africa

TheKenyanliterarycriticSimonGikandisaysthatthefocusoftheAfricannovelis‘theproblematicof[state]power’.ManyAfricanutopiasreadasiftheywererealisticnovelsabout the dystopias that exist in their homelands under either civilian or militarydictatorships.Theyare set apart primarilybybeing set in imaginary countriesor in thenearfuture.ButquiteafewAfricannovelistshavewrittenpositiveutopias.BessieHead’s(1937–86)When Rain Clouds Gather (1969) is her most explicitly utopian work andpresents theattempt tocreateautopianvillage,butherMaru (1971)andAQuestionofPower (1974) both present African village life in generally positive terms. Ayi KweiArmah(b.1939)wrotebothautopiaandadystopia.HisTwoThousandSeasons (1973)presentsare-envisionedpastofAfricaasanegalitarianutopia,buthisTheBeautyfulOnesAre Not Yet Born (1968) is similar to other African dystopias in presenting thecontemporarysituationinonecountry,theCongointhiscase,asadystopia.WoleSoyinka(b. 1934) presents both utopia and dystopia in one novel. The first two chapters of hisSeasonofAnomy (1973) present a communal utopia, butmuch of the rest of the bookpresents current reality as dystopia. Still the utopian country of Aiyéró provides thepossibilityofsomethingbetter.AndfromMali, thereisDjibrilTamsirNiane’s(b.1932)Soundjata: ou, L’epopeemandinique (Sundiata: An Epic of OldMali; 1960), which ispresented as the oral history of one of the kings ofMali and endswith the utopia hissuccessbroughtaboutwhentherewaspeaceandprosperity.

Inadditiontothosealreadymentioned,Africanutopiasinclude,fromKenya,TheTrialofChristopherOkigbo (1971)byAliA.Mazrui (b.1933);NgũgĩwaThiong’o’s (b.1938)PetalsofBlood(1977),DevilontheCross(1980),andMurogiwaKagogo(WizardoftheCrow; 2004). From Nigeria, there is The Rape of Shavi (1983) by Buchi Emechta (b.1944);Anthillsof theSavannahbyChinuaAchebe(b.1930);andAstonishing theGods(1995)andInArcadia(2002)byBenOkri(b.1959).FromGhana;thereisWomanoftheAeroplanes (1988) andMajor Gentl and the Achimota War (1992) by Kojo Laing (b.1946);andBlackFury(1995)byKodwoAbaidoo.AndfromSenegal,thereisLedernierdeL’Empire(TheLastof theEmpire:ASenegaleseNovel;1980)bySembèneOusmane(1923–2007).

11.ChinuaAchebe(b.1930)isaNigerianwriterfromtheIgbotribewhohastaughtinNigeriaandtheUnitedStates.Heisbestknownforhissatireson

contemporaryAfricanlife

Intentionalcommunities

Buddhistmonasteries in India,China, Japan,andSoutheastAsiahad flourished fromasearly as 500 BCE. Ashrams, which are dwelling places for those living some form ofspiritual discipline in India and emerging from Hinduism, had an even longer history,being traced back to around 1500 BCE. Thus, just as Christian monasticism is nowconsidered a part of the long history on intentional communities in the West andprecursorstomodernintentionalcommunities,sothetraditionsintheseareascontinuetoflourish, are part and parcel of local culture, and have spread to other areas throughimmigration.

Recently, India has developed Christian ashrams attracting Christian Indians tocommunalisminparalleltothetraditionalHinduashrams.ButtheseChristianashramsareundersomethreatfromtheHinduvatamovement.

IndiaandJapaninparticularhaveseenthedevelopmentinmoderntimesofasignificantnumber of both religious and secular intentional communities, and some of these, like

AurovilleinIndia,havebeeninfluentialthroughouttheintentionalcommunitymovement.Auroville was founded in 1968 and is currently home to around 2,000 people, whichprobablymakesitthelargestintentionalcommunityintheworld,anditemploysatotalofaround4,000people.Today, outside those involved in the intentional community movement, IndiancommunalismislikelytobeidentifiedwithIndianmovementsthatmovedoutsideIndiaandwhichmanywould label cults, like the followers of the Shree Baghwan Rajneesh(1931–90)whoestablishedcommunitiesintheUKandtheUSA,mostnotablyinOregon,where,afterconflictwith the localgovernmentsof thearea, theywerecloseddownandtheirleaderwasexpelledfromthecountry.Butprobablythemostfamiliargrouptodayisthe International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), or the Hare Krishnamovement,whosememberscanbeseendancing,parading,andchantingintheircolourfulrobesinmostlargecities.

Japan has a particularly rich communal history. In addition to Buddhist monasteries,particularlyZenmonasteries thatattractedmanyWesternersandhavespread throughoutthe world, Japan has a strong cooperative movement. It has been influenced by thewritings of Robert Owen, and there is a long-established Robert Owen Association ofJapan.Japanalsohadasmanyas300cooperativevillagesinthe1970s.Theideaofthegardencitywasverypopularinpre-warJapan,buttheideawasgenerallymisunderstood,sothatwhatwerebuiltandcalledgardencitieswereinfactstandardsuburbantownsanddidnotreflecttheconceptascreatedbyEbenezerHoward.

Japanalsodevelopeditsownindigenouscommunities,includingdystopiancultslikeAumShinrikyō, which launched a poison attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. The oldestJapanesecommune, Ittō-En,orGardenofLight,was founded in1911andmoved to itscurrentlocationin1928.AtarashikiMura,orNewVillage,wasfoundedin1918andothercommunitieshavebeenestablishedona regularbasis from then to thepresent,with anupsurge in the 1970s that paralleled the upsurge in many other countries.Most of theJapanese communities were established around a charismatic leader, but some havesurvivedthedeathofthatleader.

China has a long tradition of Buddhist monasticism, and Christian monasteries wereintroducedtogetherwithChristianity,but theconflictsof the20thcenturymeantthatallreligiousinstitutionscameunderattackfromtheCommunistgovernmentandmanyweredestroyedforciblyorclosed,andsomeareonlynowre-opening.

12.AHareKrishnagroupdancingonOxfordStreetinLondonin1980

Otherwise, Chinese communalism in the 20th century tends to be identified with theforcedcommunalismofthe1960sand1970s,duringwhichthegovernmentmovedlargenumbers of people from their home villages to communal settlements. These wereintentional communities in the sense that itwas the government’s intention to establishthem;theywerenotintentionalcommunitiesinthesensethatthepeopleinthemwerenotthere by their own choice. Temporarily, these communities appeared to fulfil thegovernment’s purposes of greater efficiency in foodproduction, populationdistribution,useoflabour(byfreeingwomentoworkbyprovidingcommunalcookingandchildcare),theabilitytoharnesslabourforinfrastructureprojects,betterhousingandsanitation,andsoforth,buttheyfairlyquicklyprovedtobemuchlessefficientthanhopedandmuchlesswell planned than they needed to have been. Thus, while the traditional religiousintentionalcommunitiesarereviving,the‘Chinesecommune’willnot.

While there have been a few exceptions, African intentional communities have beenalmost entirely the result of theprocessof colonization,withEuropeancommunitariansbelievingthatAfricaprovidedaplacetoputtheirideasintopractice,somehowmanagingtoforgetthatthelandwasalreadyoccupied.TheearliestofthesewasaproposaltosettleSierraLeonepresentedinthe1789PlanforaFreeCommunityupontheCoastofAfrica,UndertheProtectionofGreatBritain;ButIntirelyIndependentofallEuropeanLawsand

Governments.Nothingcameofthis,butvariousattemptstosettleex-slavesfromBritain,Canada, and the USA in Sierra Leone were made, with only limited success. About acentury later, TheodorHertzka proposed establishing his Freiland community inAfricaandgainedmuchinitialsupport.

Noneoftheseproposalsamountedtomuch,butanexperimentthatwasasuccessofsortsand includedbothbroadlyutopianproposalsand some intentional communitieswas thesettlementofLiberiabyfreedUSslavesundertheauspicesofvariousUSchurchesand,attimes, with official support. The utopian novel Liberia; or Mr. Peyton’s Experiments(1853)waswrittentosupporttheproject.

There is no tradition of Islamic communalism, but a few urban and rural intentionalcommunitieswereestablished in theUSAbyAfrican-Americanconverts toIslamin the1970s.

Globalperspective

Thus, utopianism is not just a phenomenon of theChristianWest, but exists in variousforms inmost, if not all, cultures.Myths of an early utopian agewere the norm,withdifferencesaboutwhatwentwrongandwhetherornotsuchautopiacouldberecoveredorrecreated.Visionsofthegoodlifetobebroughtaboutbyhumaneffortwerealsocommonand culturally specific. After More’sUtopia became known, literary utopias using hismodelhavebeenpublishedthroughouttheworld,butagaintheyreflectthespecificplacesinwhichtheywerewritten.Atthesametime,differentcountriesandculturesoftenfacedsimilarproblems,andsometimessimilaranswerswereproduced.Andsocialmovementslike feminism and environmentalism have raised questions that have been answered insimilar ways in different places. But also different places have produced dissimilaranswerstotheproblemsraised,answersclearlyreflectinglocalconditions.

Religiousintentionalcommunitiesappeartohaveemergedindependentlyinmanyplacesand have reflected local conditions. Secular communities developed much later. Somehavevarieddependingon local conditions and traditions, andothers have lookedmuchlikecommunitieselsewhere,dependingonwhatinspiredthecreationofthecommunity.

Chapter5UtopianisminChristiantraditions

Most religions have some version of a significantly better life, even if it is only afterdeath,butJudaismandChristianityarepermeatedwithutopianimagery.ChristianitywasthefountofWesternutopianismandutopianismisacentralconcern,bothpositivelyandnegatively,inrecentChristiantheology.Imagesoftheutopianpast(Eden)andtheutopianfuture(heavenandhell,theSecondComingofChrist,andthemillennium)relatetoboththisworldandthenextone,notjusttosomeinaccessiblepastorproblematicfuture.Theybecome images of a better (or worse) life, often as fantasy, but equally often raisingquestionsaboutwhythislifeisnotbetternow.IntheMiddleAges,theclergy,andmonksinparticular, seemed to livebetter lives than those theyministered to, andsomepeopleaskedwhy that better life was not available to all. People oftenwonderwhy churchesseemtosupporttherichandpowerfulagainstthemajorityofbelievers.Sincetherichandpowerfulcanhaveabetterlifenow,whycannottherestofus?

TheBible

Both theOldandNewTestaments includemany imagesandmessages that fed into thedevelopmentofWesternutopianism.FromtheOldTestament,thedepictionofEden,theworldviewoftheprophets,andspecificproposalsmadebytheprophetswereusedbylaterutopians. From the New Testament, the message of Christ and the description of theapocalypse,Armageddon,and themillennium in theRevelation to John (ApocalypseofJohn) were immensely influential. In addition, the apocryphal books (those books notincluded in the Bible) include depictions of the apocalypse, Armageddon, and themillenniumthatinfluencedlaterChristianthinkers.

TheOldTestament

Eden is lost and supposedly not recoverable. After the Fall, it is uninhabited and thehumanraceislockedoutuntiltheSecondComingofChrist,butEdenprovidedanimageofunitywithGod–immortality,innocence,nofearofwildanimals,noclimaticextremes,andabundancewithoutlabour.

DescriptionsoftheGardenofEdenquicklybecamemoreelaboratethanthatdepictedinGenesis,andthedescriptionbythe5th-centuryLatinpoetBlossiusAemiliusDracontius

(c.455–c.505)ofCarthageinNorthAfricaistypical.

Aplacethereisdiffusingriversfour,Withflowersambrosialdecked;wherejewelledturf,Wherefragrantherbsaboundthatneverfade,ThefairestgardeninthisworldofGod.Therefruitknowsnaughtofseason,buttheyear,Thereeverblossomsearth’seternalspring.Fairvestureclothesthetrees,agoodlyband;WithleavesandsturdybrancheswellentwinedAdense-grownwallarises;fromeachtreeDependsitsstore,orliesinmeadowsstrewn.Insun’shotraysitburnethnot,byblastsIsnevershaken,ordothwhirlwindrageWithfierce-conspiringgales;noicecanquell,Nohailstormstrike,norunderhoaryfrostGrowwhitethefields.Buttherearebreezescalm,Risingfromsoftergustbygleamingsprings.Eachtreeislightlystirred;bythismildbreathFrommovingleavesthetranquilshowstrays…

TheFallchangedallthis,andlabour,fear,anddeathbecamethelotofhumankind.Thereis no unity with God, and innocence is replaced by guilt, symbolized by the fig leaf.Utopianismisoftenreadasthedesiretoovercomeoriginalsinandre-enterEden,or,withsingone,createanewutopia.AsthepoliticaltheoristJudithShklar(1926–92)putit,

utopia was a way of rejecting that notion of ‘original sin’ which regarded naturalhumanvirtueandreasonasfeebleandfatally impairedfaculties.Whateverelse theclassical utopiasmight say or fail to say, allwere attacks on the radical theory oforiginalsin.

Therewere actual and fictional expeditions todiscoverEden and reports of its locationwere published, and in the 18th century Eden appeared on maps located in Armenia,because the Tigris and Euphrates originate in Armenia. As a result, Eden became apossibly discoverable earthly paradise, even one inhabited by a lost tribe or ruled by agoodChristian prince. The explorers Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) andAmerigoVespucci(1454–1512)bothbelievedthattheymighthavediscoveredtheearthlyparadiseintheNewWorld.

Thepropheticworldview

Theprophetsbewailedpresentconditions,warnedofevenworsecalamitiesifthepeople

didnotmendtheirways,andheldouthopeofbetterthingsiftheydid.Thislastpartwasnotemphasized,butitwasthere.AsJeremiahsaid,

TheyshallcomeandsingaloudontheheightofZion,andtheyshallberadiantoverthegoodnessoftheLord,overthegrain,thewine,andtheoil,andovertheyoungoftheflockandtheherd;theirlifeshallbelikeawateredgardenandtheyshalllanguishnomore.Thenshallthemaidensrejoiceinthedance,andtheyoungmenandtheoldshallbemerry.Iwillturntheirmorningintojoy.Iwillcomfortthem,andgivethemgladnessforsorrow.

(31:12–13)

AndIsaiahsaidsomethingsimilarinhisfamouspassage,

Thewolfshalldwellwiththelamb,andtheleopardshallliedownwiththekid,andthecalfand the lionand thefatling together,anda littlechildshall lead them.Thecowandthebearshallfeed;theiryoungshallliedowntogether;andthelionshalleatstraw like theox.Thesucklingchildshallplaywith theasp,and theweanedchildshallputhishandintheadder’sden.

(11:6–8)

Isaiah in particular stresses the lack of enmity between human and animal and amonganimalsthatwasastandardfeatureofmostgoldenagesandearthlyparadises.Acommonfearwilldisappear,andachildwillbesafeamongformerlydangerousanimals.

Still,thepositivevisionoftheprophetswasvagueandverygeneral.Theclosestthingtoaclassical utopia in the Old Testament is found in Ezekiel 40–48, which is a detaileddescriptionof therebuiltTempleandtheritualswhichwill takeplacethere,but thereisalso somemention of the way in which land should be distributed to the Temple, thePrince,andthevarioustribes.TherebuildingoftheTemple,heimplies,shouldbetakenasanopportunityforimprovingeveryone’slife.

OneinstitutionfoundthroughouttheOldTestamentthatmanyhaveseenasthebasisforautopia is the Jubilee year described inLeviticus 25,Nehemiah 10:31, Exodus 3:10–12,and,more radically, inDeuteronomy15:1–18.Thebasic principle is that every seventhyear,thelandshallliefallowandbegivenarest.ButDeuteronomygoesmuchfurtherbysaying that every seventh year all debts must be forgiven, except those owed byforeigners,andallthepassagesstressassistancetothepoorandfairdealing.TheJubilee2000movementtoforgiveThirdWorlddebttookitsnamefromthispractice.

13.EdwardHicks’s(1780–1849)ThePeaceableKingdomoftheBranch(1834)wasoneofsixtyoneversionsofthesubjectpaintedbyHicksbasedonIsaiah11:6–8

Atamoregenerallevel,Isaiahsaysthatinthefuturetherewillbenomorewar,saying:

Heshalljudgebetweenthenations,andshalldecideformanypeoples;andtheyshallbeat theirswords intoplowshares,and theirspears intopruninghooks;nationshallnotliftupswordagainstnation,neithershalllearnwaranymore.

(2:4)

Jewish writings not included in the Christian Bible also presented versions of a betterfuture.TheBookofJubilees(153–105BCE)saidthat:

Andalltheirdaystheyshallcompleteandliveinpeaceandjoy,Andthereshallbeno Satan nor any evil destroyer; For all their days shall be days of blessing andhealing.

AndtheSibyllineBookofOraclessaid:

ForEarththeuniversalmothershallgivetomortalsherbestfruitincountlessstoreofcorn,wineandoil.Yea,fromheavenshallcomeasweetdraughtofluscioushoney,thetreesshallyieldtheirproperfruits,andrichflocks,andkineandlambsofsheepandkidsofgoats.Hewillcausesweetfountainsofwhitemilktoburstforth.Andthecitiesshallbefullofgoodthingsandthefieldsrich:neithershalltherebeanyswordthroughout the landnorbattle din: nor shall the earthbe convulsed anymorewithdeep-drawngroans.Nowarshallbeanymorenordrought throughout the land,nofamine nor hail to work havoc on the crops. But there shall be a great peace

throughoutalltheearth,andkingshallbefriendlywithkingtilltheendoftheage,andacommonlawforman throughoutall theearthshall theEternalperfect in thestarryheavenforallthosethingswhichhavebeenwroughtbymiserablemortals.

LaterChristianreadersoftheOldTestamentstressedboththepositivemessagesfoundintheprophetsandtheemphasisonlawsdesignedtoencouragepeopletoleadthelifethatGod wanted them to lead. And many developed law-based utopias designed to do thesamething,often,reflectingthepropheticapproach,stressingthepunishmentsthatwouldbeinflictedforfailuretofollowthelaws.

TheNewTestament

TheNewTestamentdepictsChristcomingtosavehumankindandspeaksofaGodofloveratherthanpunishment.ThereisnoutopiaassuchintheNewTestament,butthemessageofequality,forgiveness,andlovingstrangersaswellasneighboursprovidedthebasisofmuch Western utopianism and many literary utopias. One of the regular themes wassimply that agood societywould result if people adhered toChrist’smessage,with theSermonontheMount(Matthew5:3–11)outliningtherewardsforgoodbehaviour,saying:

Blessedarethepoorinspirit,fortheirsisthekingdomofheaven.

Blessedarethosewhomourn,fortheyshallbecomforted.

Blessedarethemeek,fortheyshallinherittheearth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall besatisfied.

Blessedarethemerciful,fortheyshallobtainmercy.

Blessedarethepureinheart,fortheyshallseeGod.

Blessedarethepeacemakers,fortheyshallbecalledthesonsofGod.

Blessed are thosewho are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is thekingdomofheaven.

Blessedareyouwhenmenrevileyouandpersecuteyouandutterallkindsofevilagainstyoufalselyonmyaccount.Rejoiceandbeglad,foryourrewardisgreatinheaven,forsomenpersecutedtheprophetswhowerebeforeyou.

And Matthew 5:48 said You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father isperfect.’

Theapocalypseandmillennium

Themost common formof utopianwriting during this periodwere apocalypses,whichforesaw an imminent cataclysm in which Godwould destroy the wicked and raise therighteous for a life in amessianic kingdom.Most suchworkswere excluded from theBible, and the Revelation to John or the Apocalypse of John is the major canonicalexample.Theopeningofthesevensealsandtheblowingoftheseventrumpetsdescribedthereisacatalogueofhorriblepunishmentsthatgoonandonuntiltheentireearthandallof its inhabitants are destroyed. But after the thousand-year rule of the righteous andArmageddon,orthefinalwarbetweengoodandevil,anewuniversewillbecreated.

ThenIsawanewheavenandanewearth;forthefirstheavenandthefirstearthhadpassed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,comingdownoutofheavenfromGod,preparedasabrideadornedforherhusband;and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling ofGod iswithmen.Hewilldwellwith them,and theyshallbehispeople,andGodhimselfwillbewiththem;Hewillwipeawayeverytearfromtheireyes,anddeathshallbenomore,neithershalltherebemourningnorcryingnorpainanymore,fortheformerthingshavepassedaway’.

(21:1–4)

This is thenfollowedbyadescriptionof thenewJerusalem,emphasizingthat it isbuiltoutofpreciousmetalsandjewels.Forexample,‘Andthebuildingofthewallofitwasofjasper:andthecitywaspuregold,likeuntoclearglass’(21:18).

Most apocalypses are non-canonical and describe the messianic kingdom in termsreminiscent of the golden age. For example, II Baruch, also called the Apocalypse ofBaruch,says:

Andthenhealingshalldescendindew,anddiseaseshallwithdraw,andanxietyandanguishandlamentationpassfromamongstmen,andgladnessproceedthroughthewholeearth.Andnooneshallagaindieuntimely,norshallanyadversitysuddenlybefall…Andwomenshallnolongerthenhavepainwhentheybear,norshalltheysuffer tormentwhen theyyield the fruit of thewomb, and it shall come topass inthosedaysthatthereapersshallnotgrowweary,northosethatbuildbetoilworn;fortheworksshallofthemselvesspeedilyadvancetogetherwiththosewhodotheminmuchtranquility.

TheBook of Enoch presents a similar picture, and golden-agemessianic kingdoms arealsofoundinthewritingsoftheearlyChurchFathers.InTheDivineInstitutes,Lactantius

wrotethat

the earthwill open its fruitfulness, and bring forthmost abundant fruit of its ownaccord;therockymountainsshalldropwithhoney;streamsofwineshallrundown,andriversflowwithmilk:inshort,theworlditselfshallrejoice,andallnatureexult,beingreceivedandsetfreefromthedominionofevilandimpiety,andguiltanderror.

14.TheNewJerusalemdescendingonEarthisdescribedintheRevelationto

John(21:16).Thisillustrationisfroma14th-centurytapestry

Thus,whiletheactualEdenmaynotbeaccessible,alternativeEdensmightbe.

Although temporarilysuppressedbecauseof its radical implications, theapocalypseandmillennialexpectationshavebeenimmenselyinfluentialandcanbetracedthroughouttheMiddleAges,whentheycametofocusonthehopeofaLastWorldEmperorwhowastobring a period of improvement on earth before the coming of the Antichrist. Suchexpectationscanbeseeninpoliticalmovementsin17th-and18th-centuryEnglandandinthebeliefsoftheAmericanPuritansand,later, theAmericanRevolution.Morerecently,there is theAmerican publishing phenomenon theLeftBehind series,which includes abasic13volumesplusgraphicnovels,videos,videogames,booksforchildren,andrelatedproducts, all describing those left on earth after the Rapture – a premillennialist beliefbasedon IThessalonians inwhich all the saved are taken from thisworld at one time,throughthestrugglebetweengoodandeviltotheSecondComingofChrist.

StBrendan’sIslandandPresterJohn

Two influential images were added to Christian utopianism in the Middle Ages, StBrendan’s Islandand theLandofPrester John from the late12th century.StBrendan’sisland appeared onmaps as late as the 15th and 16th centuries, andwhen the explorerVasco da Gama (c. 1460/69–1534) set sail, he carried letters to Prester John, so both

figuredintheChristianimaginationforcenturies.

As IrelandwasChristianized, traditional voyage tales called Immramawere themselvesChristianizedorreplacedwithChristianparablesusingthesameform.Themostfamouswasthe‘VoyageofStBrendan’,possiblywrittenasearlyas800,whichexistsinanumberofvaryingversions indifferent languages. Inwhatmaybe theearliestversion,BrendanandafewofhismonksseekthePromisedLandoftheSaints,whichispresentedinquiteaustere terms. In other, much more elaborate, versions, Brendan and his monks visitParadise, the entrance to which is guarded by dragons and a great sword, but God’smessengerwelcomesthemandadmitsthemtoParadise,where:

Thosewholivetherewillexperiencenohardship,andharshwindswillbeunknown,as will heat and cold, affliction and hunger, thirst and privation. There will be aplentiful supplyofwhateveronedesiresandeveryonewillbecertain theywillnotlosewhattheywantmost;itwillbethereatalltimesandalwaysready.

Theothergreatmedievaltale,thelandofPresterJohn,becameoneofthegreatmythsofthelateMiddleAges.ItwassupposedlyvisitedbyJohnMandevilleanddescribedinTheTravelsofSirJohnMandeville(1499),togetherwithmanyrealandfancifulplaces,suchasacommunityofAmazonsandoneofmonsters.Manyexplorerssetouttofindit;manyreportedbackthattheyhad.Foundornot,thebasiccharacteristicsofPresterJohn’slandremainedroughlythesame.PresterJohnwastheessenceoftheholy,Christianruler;thelandheruledwasonewhereatrueChristiancouldleadafullyChristianlife,somethingnotpossibleelsewhere.ThisfullyChristianlifehastobeautopia.Thelifecouldnotbeperfectbecauseperfectionmustawait themillennium,but it couldbemuchbetter livedunder a good Christian prince than under any other regime. One literature of the timecametobecalled‘instructionstoprinces’andtoldprinceshowtobehavetobecomegoodChristianprincesandthustoproducebetterlivesforalltheirsubjects.

AllofthesedescriptionsarepointbypointresponsestothecurseoftheFall,butnoneareaccessibletothehumanracewithouttheinterventionofGod.Eventherighteousdonotsimply choose themselves but are chosen byGod, and this is true even of the ultimateutopia,heaven.

Heavenandhell

The actual conditions of heaven or paradise are not as adequately described as are theearthlyparadises, but heaven is roughly similar to agolden age exceptnot aspleasure-oriented. Of course, there is no death since that has already happened. The spiritualexistenceusuallyhasnoneedoffood,shelter,sex,orwork.UnitywithGodprovidesallthatisneededforever.

The 4th-century ‘Apocalypse of Paul’, which became popular in Western Christianity,provided early descriptions of heaven and hell that became part of Western culture.

Heavenwasatypicalearthlyparadise.

AndIlookedarounduponthatland,andIsawariverflowingwithmilkandhoney,and therewere treesplantedby thebankof that river, full of fruit;moreover, eachsingletreeboretwelvefruitsintheyear,havingvariousanddiversefruits;andIsawthecreated thingswhichare in thatplaceandall theworkofGod,andIsawtherepalms of twenty cubits, but others of ten cubits; and that land was seven timesbrighter thansilver.Andthereweretreesfulloffruitsfromtheroots tothehighestbranches, of ten thousand fruits ofpalmsupon ten thousand fruits.Thegrapevineshad ten thousand plants. Moreover in the single vines there were ten thousandbunchesand ineachof thesea thousandsinglegrapes;moreover thesesingle treesboreathousandfruits.

Andhellwashorrific:

And I saw therea riverboilingwith fire, and in it amultitudeofmenandwomenimmersedup to theirknees,andothermenup to theirnaval,othersevenup to thelips,othersup to thehair…And I saw to thenorth aplaceofvarious anddiversepunishmentsfullofmenandwomen,andariveroffirerandownintoit.

AndarevisionofheavenandhellbyStAugustine(354–430)astheCityofGodandtheEarthlyCitywasalsoinfluential.Augustinedividedsouls,livingordead,intothedamned,whoaretheoverwhelmingmajority,andtheelectorsaved.Amongtheliving,onlyGodknowswho is amember ofwhich city; it is impossible for the individual or any otherliving person to know. Thus,while a this-worldly dystopiamight be possible, a utopiawouldnotbe.

But the image of hell that entered people’s imaginations was that pictured in Dante’s(1265–1321)Inferno,withitsgradationsofsinnersundergoingvarioustortures.Themostcommonimageisoneoffire,whichisdepictedinDanteeventhoughtheinnermostcirclepresidedoverbySatanisactuallyfrozen.

While in Christianity the Second Coming of Christ might occur at any time, it wasimpossibletoknowwhen,andnoonecouldbesurethattheywouldbeamongthesaved.Manycalculationsweremaderegardingthedate,andtherewereproposalsabouthowtohelpbringitabout,butover timetheexpectationfadedformost,butnotall,Christians.This situationwas simplyunacceptable.Humanbeingscouldnotbelieve that life couldnotbebetter,andtheywonderedbothwhatabetterlifewouldlooklikeandhowtobringitabout.

TheapocalypticandmillennialwritingscametogetherinJoachimofFiore(c.1135–1202)whoinfluenced,directlyorindirectly,generationsoflaterwriters.Joachimpredictedthatthere would be a third age yet to come in which a new spiritual state of beingwouldtransformexistingsocialandpolitical institutions, includingtheChurch,andthuswouldbesomethinglikeautopia.

The utopian elements in Joachim’s writings and in the thought of most of his variedfollowerswasgenerallyavaguemillenarianism,althoughthereweremanyhereticalsectsatroughlythesametimethathaddifferingnotionsofwhatlifeinthemillenniumwouldbe like.But itwas only in theRadicalReformation that life in themillenniumbecamespecific, with, for example,Mary Cary’s TheLittleHornsDoom andDownfall (1651)giving a detailed description of the utopia to come. Then the radical potential ofChristianityblossomedforthandmanyutopiaswereimaginedandputintopractice.

RecentChristiantheology

Krishan Kumar has argued in his Religion and Utopia that there is a profoundcontradictionbetweentheChristianreligionandutopia.Utopiaisofthisworld;formany,religionisprimarilyconcernedwiththenext;therefore,utopiaisheretical.Forexample,theHungarian-AmericanCatholicphilosopherThomasMolnar(b.1921)wrote,‘Utopianthoughtisitselfevil.’

Thetheologicalargumentagainstutopianismismuchsimplerthantheoneinfavourofitbecauseitisbasedonthecommonassumptionthatutopianismisrootedinthedenialoforiginalsin.

The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) regularly attacked what he called ‘Theutopianillusionsandsentimentalaberrationsofmodernliberalculture’which‘arereallyallderivedfromthebasicerrorofnegatingthefactoforiginalsin’.AdamandEvebrokeGod’scommandmentandwerepunishedbyexpulsionfromtheGardenofEdenandtoalifeof toil,pain,fear,anddeath.Anybelief thatsuggests that thesepunishmentscanbeovercomebyhumanactionmustbeheretical.

TheargumentinfavourofutopianismisbasedonChrist’smessageandministry,whichisseenasutopian in that itwasoftendirectedathumanproblems thatcouldbesolvedbyhumanaction.TheologianssuchasPaulTillich(1886–1965)havearguedthattheutopianelements inChristianity,particularly itseschatologicalcharacter,areasignificantsourceof its strength. In addition, Marxist writers such as Ernst Bloch have incorporatedChristianeschatologyintotheirMarxismandhavedevelopedanon-religious‘theology’ofhope. This conflict became particularly important in the 20th century with thedevelopment of the social gospel movement, Christian socialism, and the seriouscompetition that alternative belief systems such as Communism have posed toChristianity.

TheadvocatesofutopiainrecentChristiantheologyarebestrepresentedbyTillich,whowrote,‘Ibelieveitcanbeshownthatutopiahasafoundationinman’sbeing.’ForTillich,weareutopiansbecausewearehuman;utopiais,inthefirstplace,therejectionor‘denialofwhatisnegativeinhumanexistence’;andallutopiasaredevicesforrepresentingmanovercominghisfinitude.Utopiapartakesoftruth‘becauseitexpressesman’sessence,theinneraimofhisexistence;itshowswhatmanhasasinneraimandwhathemusthaveforfuturefulfillmentasaperson’.Bututopiaalsopartakesofuntruthbecauseit‘forgetsthefinitudeandalienationofman,itforgetsthatmanasfiniteunitesbeingandnon-beingand

that under the conditions of existence man is always estranged from his true being’.Further, utopia is both fruitful and unfruitful because it opens up new possibilities forhumanitybutatthesametimesuggeststhatthingsthatareimpossibleareinfactpossible.It ispowerfulbecauseit‘isable to transformthegiven’.It is impotentbecause‘it leadsinevitablytodisillusionment’.Andheconcludesonanoteofqualifiedhope,arguingthatutopiaisalwaysandnecessarilysuspendedbetween‘possibilityandimpossibility.Inaddition,theJewishphilosopherMartinBuber(1878–1965),authorofPathsinUtopia(1946 in Hebrew; 1949 in English), argued for the centrality of utopianism to bothJudaism and Christianity, seeing utopia as the application to the real world of themessianismfoundinbothreligions.Buthewarnedofthedangerofturningutopiaintoablueprintthatmustbefollowed.

Byprovidingalternativefutures,theutopiachallengesthepresenttojustifyitselfinvaluesthat transcend the immediate questions of power.The utopia emphasizes that life is forhumansandthatsocietyshouldbedesignedtoachievethefulfilmentofallthepeopleinit.

TheoppositionalfunctionofutopiahasrecentlybeenseeninLiberationTheology,whichclearlyhadautopianvisioninits‘PreferentialOptionforthePoor’andincludedaformofintentional community known as ‘communautés de base’, or ‘base communities, as afundamentalpartofbringingaboutsocialchange.LiberationTheologyexplicitlyopposedthe support of the rich and powerful by the Church in South America. In doing so, itappealed toChrist’s and St Francis’s egalitarianism in particular.GustavoGutíerrez (b.1928), a Peruvian theologian and one of the founders of Liberation Theology, refersexplicitlytotheutopianfunctionofhistheology.AsLiberationTheologyexpandedoutofthe Roman Catholic Church, which suppressed it, into Protestantism, and to BlackTheologyinparticular,itaddedraceandthengendertoclass.

Today, there aremanyChristian intentional communities, some extremely conservative,somevery radical, trying to live the life theybelieveChristianity requiresof them.Theconservativeonestendtowithdrawfromthelargersociety;theradicalonestendtoengagedirectlywiththelargersociety.

Thus, the close connection between Christianity and utopianism continues even whilemanyChristiansbelieveittobeheretical.

Chapter6Utopianismandpoliticaltheory

Utopianism begins with dissatisfaction and says that human needs can be satisfied ifcertainconditionsaremet.Thesimplestdissatisfactionsleadtothesimplestsatisfactionsandthemostbasicutopia,stillunmetinmuchoftheworld:anemptystomachthatisfed,nakednessthatisclothed,andhousingtoavoidexposuretotheelements.Butsomecriticsofutopianismhaveconnectedittosomeoftheproblemsofthe20thcentury,suchastwoworld wars and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda. In particular, the rise ofCommunism, National Socialism, and, most recently, Islamism, which their followersbelieved tobe routes tobetter lives,havebeen seenby theiropponents as thebasis forwhat has been called the dystopian 20th century. On the other hand, the supporters ofutopianismargue that it has been fundamental to overcoming theworst excesses of the20thcentury,isessentialforthecontinuanceofcivilization,andisevenanessentialpartofbeinghuman.Tosomeextent,bothareright.

After1989,with the fallof theBerlinWall and thecollapseofCommunism inEasternEurope and theSovietUnion (it is still theofficial ideologyofChina,Cuba,Laos, andVietnam),manyworkswere published proclaiming the end of utopia, just as there hadbeensuchworkspredictingtheendofideologyinthe1950s.These‘endofutopiaworkscontendedthattheopponentshadwonintheconflictbetweensupportersandopponentsofutopia.Withgoodreason,thispositionwasexpressedmoststronglyinGermany.Havingexperienced both National Socialism and Communism, many Germans were happy tobelievethatutopiaswouldnolongerthreatenthem.Buttheyalsobelievedthattheendofutopiawouldproduceabetterlife.Noteveryonebelievesitdid,andmany,particularlyinthe former East Germany, believe that life was better under Communism because,although poor and without freedom, they felt, not entirely accurately but not entirelyinaccurately either, that they had economic security. Thus, we see yet again thephenomenon of appearing to reach utopia, finding it inadequate, and setting off afteranotherutopia,whichwillbefoundinadequate.Theopponentsofutopiaseethisprocessnegatively;thesupportersseeitpositively.

Thecaseagainstutopia

I consider what I call Utopianism an attractive and, indeed, an all too attractivetheory;forIalsoconsideritdangerousandpernicious.Itis,Ibelieve,self-defeating,anditleadstoviolence.

(KarlPopper)

Inmostatrocities,there’sabigutopiandream–acleanersociety,orpurersociety.

(RichardMollica)

Themostcommonapproachoftheopponentsofutopianismistoequatetheutopianwiththeperfect.InEnglish,‘perfectsuggestsfinished,completed,unchangeable–andnothinghumanisfinished,complete,orunchangeable,sotheequationmakesutopiaslookfoolishoratleastfoolhardy.ThepoliticaltheoristJudithShklarwrotethat‘utopia,themoralistsartifact,isofnecessityachangeless,harmoniouswhole’.ThesociologistRalfDahrendorf(b. 1920), who became Director of the London School of Economics, wrote that: ‘AllutopiasfromPlato’sRepublictoGeorgeOrwell’sbravenewworldof1984havehadoneelementofconstructionincommon:theyareallsocietiesfromwhichchange isabsent’.And the Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski wrote that one of what he calls ‘thegeneral characteristics’ of the social utopia is ‘the idea of the perfect and everlastinghumanfraternity’.

Very few actual utopias make any pretence to perfection. Neither Plato or Marx, theutopiansourcesPoppercites,pretendthattheyarediscussingperfection.PlatospentmuchoftheRepublicarguingthathisidealstatemustinevitablycollapse.AndMarxisexplicitthat he does not and cannot know what the future will bring, what sort of societyunalienatedpeoplemightcreate,andhisone-sentencedescriptionofsuchasocietyinTheGermanIdeology(1845–6)stressesvarietyandchange.InMenLikeGods(1923),H.G.Wellspresentsautopiaundergoingimmensechanges,andinithecomparestheapparenttranquillityoftheutopiato‘thesteadinessofamillrace,whichseemsalmostmotionlessinitsquietonrushuntilabubbleorafleckoffoamorsomestickorleafshootsalongandrevealsitsvelocity’.

Manyutopiasarelikeaphotographoraglimpseofafunctioningsocietyatamomentintimecontainingwhattheauthorperceivestobebetteranddesignedtobreakthroughthebarriersofthepresentandencouragepeopletowantchangeandworkforit.Mostutopiasarebetteratdepictingchangefromcurrentconditionstotheutopiathanthechangewithintheutopia,andsomedeliberatelyrestrictchangewithintheutopiaontheassumptionthatsomethinggoodshouldnotbechangedwithoutcarefulconsideration.Still,manyutopiaswelcomethepossibilityofchange,asdidMore’sUtopiansonlearningofChristianity,andmanyothersfollowFrancisBacon’s(1561–1626)NewAtlantis (1627)insendingpeopleinto the outside world, usually anonymously, to find whatever might be useful for theutopia,andthissuggestsanopennesstochange.Historydoesnotendwiththearrivalofutopia;changemaybeslower,butchange,andthushistory,willoccur.

Another argument is that utopianism assumes that all utopias are based on humanrationality and that humanbeings areonlypartly rational.As JacobTalmon (1916–80),ProfessorofModernHistoryattheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,putit:

Utopianismisbasedupontheassumptionthatreasonalone–nothabit,ortradition,or prejudice – can be the sole criterion in human affairs. But the end of thisassumptionisthatreason,likemathematics,mustcommanduniversalconsent,sinceithas sole andexclusive truth. In fact, reason turnsout tobe themost fallible andprecariousofguides;becausethereisnothingtopreventavarietyof‘reasons’fromcroppingup,eachclaimingsoleandexclusivevalidity,andbetweenwhichtherecanbenocompromise,noarbiterexceptforce.

Poppermakesasimilarpoint,saying:

theUtopianapproachcanbe savedonlyby thePlatonicbelief inoneabsoluteandunchanging ideal, togetherwith two further assumptions, namely (a) that there arerationalmethodstodetermineonceandforallwhatthisidealis,and(b)whatthebestmeansofitsrealizationare.

This argument is similar to the contention by the 17th-century English philosopherThomasHobbes(1588–1679)inLeviathan(1659)thatforwantofa‘rightreason,lifeinthe state of naturewill be ‘poor, nasty, brutish, and short’. ButHobbes concludes that,therefore, governmentmust be established as ‘right reason’, this being the onlywayofensuring the security that will allow a full life, and for this reason some have calledLeviathanautopia.

Popper argues for a process of deliberate reform, which he calls ‘piecemeal socialengineering’, instead of ‘utopian engineering’. He argues that instead of the utopianapproach, we should try to eliminate ‘concrete evils’. In making this argument, hecontraststwotypesofreason,onewhichhelabelsreasonableness,whichhesupports,andanotherwhichheequateswithutopianismbecause it requiresadefinedend, theutopia,andwhatisrationalisdeterminedbyitsconnectiontothatend–somethingalongthelinesof‘theendsjustifythemeans’.

15.KarlPopper(1902–94)wasamongthemostimportantphilosophersofscience

ofthelastcentury.BornandeducatedinAustria,hespentmostofhiscareerattheLondonSchoolofEconomics.HisbookTheOpenSocietyandItsEnemies(1945withanumberoflatereditions)ishismostimportantcontributiontosocialandpolitical

thought

OpponentsofutopianismlikePopperoftenusetheword‘blueprint’todescribeutopias,awordflatlyrejectedbymostutopians.AstheAmericanpoliticaltheoristGeorgeKateb(b.1931)wrote‘anyseriousutopianthinkerwillbemadeuncomfortablebytheveryideaofblueprint,ofdetailedrecommendationsconcerningeveryfacetoflife’.Inotherwords,theutopianargumentisthatutopiasdonotcreatetheartefactsthatPopperandotherssaytheydo.

But theopponentsofutopianismarenotentirelywrongin that theyaredescribingwhatcanhappenifautopiacomestobebelievedinasthesolesolutiontohumanity’sproblemsbyapersonorgroupwith thepower to impose theirwill onothers.This is some stepsaway from the utopia, in that the utopia has to first become an ideology (a system ofbelief) and the believers have to havepower, as happenedwithCommunism inRussia,NationalSocialism inGermany, and inPolPot’s (1928–98)Cambodia/Kampuchea.Butevenifweacceptthattherewereutopiasafewstepsbehindtheatrocitiesbroughtaboutintheir names, in none of them was it the sort of detailed utopia described by utopia’sopponents.Theutopiaswerequite vague, being specific only inparts, and theproblemarosewhen individualsweregiven thepower to fill in thedetails and try tobring theirsocietiesintolinewiththesedetails.TheScottishphilosopherandeconomistAdamSmith

(1723–90)putitverywell,writing:

The man of system…is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often soenamouredwith the supposedbeautyofhisown idealplanofgovernment, thathecannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it.He goes on to establish itcompletelyandinallitsparts,withoutanyregardeithertothegreatinterests,ortothestrongprejudiceswhichmayopposeit.Heseemstoimaginethathecanarrangethedifferentpiecesuponachess-board.Hedoesnotconsiderthatthepiecesuponthechess-boardhavenootherprincipleofmotionbesides thatwhich thehandpressesuponthem;butthat,inthegreatchess-boardofhumansociety,everysinglepiecehasaprincipleofmotionofitsown,altogetherdifferentfromthatwhichthelegislaturemightchusetoimpressuponit.Ifthosetwoprinciplescoincideandactinthesamedirection,thegameofhumansocietywillgoeasilyandharmoniously,anditisverylikelytobehappyandsuccessful.Iftheyareoppositeordifferent,thegamewillgomiserably,andthesocietymustbeatalltimesinthehighestdegreeofdisorder.

TheproblemisneatlyexpressedbytheGermanphilosopherImmanuelKant(1724–1804),whowrote, ‘Outof timbersocrookedas that fromwhichman ismadenothingentirelystraight canbe built’.Thosewhowant to force the ‘crooked timber of humanity’ to bestraightandhave thepower tomake theattemptare theproblem,not thebelief that theworld could be better.And even Popper has to have some idea ofwhat ‘better’meanswhen he supports getting rid of ‘concrete evils’.A collection of his essays is called InSearchofaBetterWorld (1992), inwhich,althoughtherestof thebookisanti-utopian,thefirstsentenceis‘Alllivingbeingsareinsearchofabetterworld’(vii).

But people can be misled. As Arthur Koestler (1905–83), the writer who was aCommunistfrom1931to1938,putitin‘TheYogiandtheCommissar’:

The peak of Utopia is steep; the serpentine-road which leads up to it has manytortuous curves.While you aremoving up the road you never face the peak, yourdirection is the tangent, leading nowhere. If a great mass of people are pushingforward along the serpentine theywill, according to the fatal laws of inertia, pushtheir leader off the road and then followhim, thewholemovement flying off at atangentintonowhere.

TheproblemsthatKoestlersuggestshere,inhisfamousDarknessatNoon(1940),andinhis contribution to The God That Failed (1950), are the problems of belief and thetendencyofsomebelieverstofollowaleaderwhereverhe/shegoes,evenif thatbetoadystopiaoreventodeath,asinthemasssuicidesatJonestown.

Thecaseforutopia

Thedefining characteristic of utopianism is that it is a political theory specificallydirectedtowardsthecreationofhumanhappiness.

(GoodwinandTaylor)

Ihaveneverunderstoodwhythechargeofutopianismisnecessarilythoughttobeanobjection to a theory of politics. One legitimate aspiration of moral and politicaltheoryissurelytoshowuswhatlinesofactionwearecommittedtoundertakingbythevaluesweprofesstoaccept.

(QuentinSkinner)

Inadditiontosayingthatutopianismisnotwhattheanti-utopianssayit is,defendersofutopianismcontendthatutopianismisessential,andtheysometimesgosofarastodefinehumanity as the animal that creates utopias.ErnstBloch sawutopia everywhere. In hisThe Principle of Hope (1955–9; English translation 1987), Bloch’s analysis of utopiabeginswith thefact thatwedaydream,awakingdreaminwhichweexplicitlywishforsomething we lack. Most such dreams are not particularly utopian in that they areconcernedwithourselvesandonly involveothers to fulfilourneedsorwants.Theyaremorelikelytobeaboutfood,sex,freedomfromworkorbossesthanabouttheeliminationofhunger,worldpeace,equalityandfreedomforall.Butthetwodimensionsarecloselyrelated.AstheclassicalscholarM.I.Finley(1912–86)said:

16.ErnstBloch(1885–1977)wasaGermanMarxistphilosopherwhosebookDas

PrinzipHoffnung(3vols,1955–59/EnglishasThePrincipleofHope1987)isbothahistoryofutopianisminallitsmanifestationsandanargumentforthecentralroleof

utopianisminpoliticalthought

AllUtopianthinkinghasanelementoffantasy,ofdreaming,oratleastofyearning,forabetterlifeandabetterworld.Andallmendreaminthisway,aboutthemselvesandtheirfamiliesifnotaboutsocietyingeneralortheworldatlarge.

Butdaydreamsdonottakeusveryfar,inthattheyaremoreasignofourdissatisfactionthanaguidetochange.

For Bloch, utopia is ‘the forward dream’, and what is ‘not-yet’ is central to hisunderstandingofutopia,withthe‘yet’beingparticularlyimportant, implyingthatutopiaexpressespossibility.Blochsaysthat‘Wenevertireofwantingthingstoimprove’andthat‘thepull towardswhat is lackingnever ends’, but suchwanting lacksdirection, itmustbecome a drive or a need. It must move from what Bloch calls ‘abstract utopia’ to‘concreteutopia’,betweenutopiasdisconnectedfromandconnectedwithhumanreality.Hedoesnotreject theimpulsethatgivesrise to the‘abstract’utopia, in thathebelievesthatoptimismisbetterthanpessimismandthatthe‘abstract’utopiaexpresseshope,evenif that hope is disconnected from possibility. But it is the ‘concrete’ utopia that isembeddedinanunderstandingofcurrentrealityandconnectedtothepossibilityofactualsocialimprovementthatisimportant.

In a similar vein, Frederick L. Polak, the Dutch sociologist, described what he called‘positiveimagesofthefuture’,whichhecontendspullusintherightdirection.Polakalsosaysthat‘Theutopiaaimsatthedevelopmentofhumandignitythroughourownefforts’andcontendsthatutopiaisattheveryrootofthehumanabilitytoachievedignity.

Acentralissueforutopiaiswhetherabettersocialorderallowspeopletobecomebetterorbetterpeoplecreateabettersocialorder.Bothraisethequestionofhowtogetstarted,with the first raising two questions,where does the better social order come from, andwhetherornot itcanbecreatedwiththepeoplewenoware;andthesecondraisingthequestionofwherethebetterpeoplecomefrom.

Thebettersocialorderallowingforbetterpeopleis theclassicutopianmodelandisthefocusofmostoftheattacksbytheopponentsofutopianism.Inthisapproach,autopiaiswrittenwithorwithouttheintentthatitbeusedasamodelforabetterfuture,with,forexample,EdwardBellamybothsayingthatthiswasandwasnothisintentinwritinghispopularLookingBackward.Theutopiaattractsfollowers,asdidLookingBackward,andsocial and politicalmovements arise to try to put at least some parts of the utopia intoeffect.Sometimesintentionalcommunitiesarefoundedfor thesamepurpose,oftenwiththehopethatasuccessfulmodelwillconvinceothersofthedesirabilityoftheutopia.Thishappened in the case of Looking Backward even though Bellamy opposed such

communities.

Wherebetterpeopleareexpectedtocreate thebettersocialorder, theproblemofwherethese peoplewill come from ismost often solvedby religion, and a common themeofChristianutopiasisthatpeoplepractisewhatChristtaughtand,indoingso,bringaboutabetterworld.Thiscanstartwithaninspiredministerorwithapersonwhosetsanexamplethatotherschoosetofollow,asinCharlesM.Sheldon’s(1857–1946)novelInHisSteps:‘WhatWouldJesusDo?’(1897).OtherChristianutopiasarebasedontheSecondComingofChrist,but thereareasmanysatiresconcernedwith theSecondComing that suggestthatChristwillberejected,asinthefamous‘GrandInquisitor’sceneinRussiannovelistFyodorDostoevsky’s(1821–81)TheBrothersKaramazov(1880).

Whenautopia isdesignedasa realisticalternative, it is intendednotasa society tobeachievedinallitsdetail,butasavehicleforpresentinganalternativetothepresent.Inthissense,autopia isamirror to thepresentdesigned tobringout flaws,acircusor funfairmirror in reverse, to illustrate ways in which life could be better, not necessarily thespecificwaysinwhichlifeshouldbemadebetter.

Becausewearesocializedinaparticularsocietyandtoanacceptanceofitsviews,wearelikely to be incapable of a critical awareness of our situation, and we can defineunfreedomasfreedom,inequalityasequality,injusticeasjustice.Dominantbeliefsystemsarecapableofblindingpeopletotherealityoftheirsituations.Theutopiandreamattemptstobreakthroughtheperspectivesthattendtowardtheacceptanceofthecurrentsituation,andthiscanbeashatteringexperiencesinceitsuggeststhatourcurrentrealityissimplywrong.

Twocontemporarysocial theorists,FredricJameson(b.1934)andZygmuntBauman(b.1925), illustrate the current ambivalence regarding utopia. Utopia has been central toJameson’s thought from hisMarxism and Form in 1971 through Archaeologies of theFuturein2005,andhehasdiscussedbothutopianismingeneralandanumberofutopiantexts.Hearguesthatutopianismispositivebecauseitkeepsopenthepossibilityoffuturechange, but he also argues that ‘Utopias have something to dowith failure, and tell usmoreaboutourownlimitsandweaknessesthantheydoaboutperfectsocieties’.Andhestressesthatmostattemptstoimagineutopiarevealitsimpossibilitybecauseweareboundby culture and ideology, and this keeps us from breaking out of our reality to imagineanything radically different, even if better. At the same time, he also stresses thedesirabilityofcontinuingtheattempt,instancingtheimportanceoffeministandsocialistutopiasthattriedtoimagineworldswithoutgenderdominationorhierarchy.

Fromasomewhatdifferentperspective,Baumanmakesasimilarargument.InSocialism:TheActiveUtopia(1976),hearguedthatutopiaisconcernedwithperfectibility,process,ratherthanperfection,anendpoint.Utopiaisemancipatoryinthatitcanhelpfree‘oneselffrom the apparently overwhelming mental and physical dominance of the routine, theordinary, the “normal”’. Later, he argued that the utopias of the period he calls ‘solidmodernity do emphasize perfection, which he contrasts with the ‘liquidity’ ofpostmodernity.Hewritesthatinmodernity,

Utopiaisavisionofacloselywatched,monitored,administeredanddailymanagedworld.Aboveall, it isavisionofapredesignedworld,aworldinwhichprediction

andplanningstaveofftheplayofchance.

Buthestillarguesthatutopiaisafundamentalaspectofbeinghuman,saying:

Tomeasure the life ‘as it is’bya lifeas itshouldbe (that is,a life imagined tobedifferent from the life known, and particularly a life that is better and would bepreferabletothelifeknown)isadefining,constitutivefeatureofhumanity.

But he does not like the postmodern utopias,which he sees as privatized, consumerist,individual,andlonely,saying,

Each one is made to the measure of the consumer’s bliss – intended, like allconsumer joys, for utterly individual, lonely enjoyment evenwhen it is relished incompany.

Andheisclearlynolongercomfortablewiththeutopiaheonceadvocated,sayingthatinmodernity,

Inthecityofreason,therewerenowindingroads,nocul-de-sacsandnounattendedsiteslefttochance–andthusnovagabonds,vagrantsornomads.

Bauman,whobeganasastrongproponentofaparticularutopia,hascometorejectboththat utopia and the ones he currently finds around him.But he still sees utopianism asfundamentaltohumanexistence,towhatmakesushuman,andthatisbasictothecaseforutopia.Youmaynotlikeawholerangeofparticularutopias,butitisstillessentialthatwecontinuetobelieveinthepossibilityofasignificantlybettersociety.

Globalization

The debate between globalizers and anti-globalizers is a debate between utopias, bothvisionsofwhatthefutureworldshouldlooklikeandhowtogetthere.Thereareanumberof global utopias, or dystopias as some prefer. The best known is the one that ties theworld together economically through free trade and the freemarket.Capitalists and themajorworldpowersareall infavourof thisutopia,exceptofcoursewhenitnegativelyimpactsthem,atwhichpointtheyfavourprotectionandregulation.Forexample,theUSAisallforfreetradewhileprotectingitsownindustriesandsubsidizingitsfarmers,atthesame time strenuously opposing the European Union subsidizing its farmers. The freemarket isgreatas longas itonlybenefits thehomeside.Theutopia is in thebelief thatfreemarketsandfreetradeonlyeverproducepositiveresults.Thisforgets,asweareall

too aware today, thatmarkets go down aswell as up. In the utopia, everyone benefits;globalization will benefit everyone economically and will help spread democracy byopeninguporliberalizingmarketsandintegratingmarketsworldwide.Thesecondglobalutopiaemergesfromtheanti-globalizationmovementandisnotaswelldefinedasaglobal utopiabecause itdevelopsout thehundreds,probably thousands,ofgroupswithverydifferentagendasthatmakeupthatmovement.Inessence,itishumanistorhumanitarian,althoughgiventheinvolvementoftheanimalrightsmovementanddeepecology,therootword‘human’narrowsittoomuch.Itisplanetaryinthatitenvisionsanimprovedlifeforallsentientbeingsor,toincludedeepecology,thebiosphere.

Therearesomeprettybasiccontradictionsinthisutopia.Atthesimplestlevel,therehavetobemanyfewerhumanbeingsifanimalsorthebiospherearetogettheirdue.Atamorecomplex level, the developing world wants to be able to provide a better life for itscitizens,whichmayentailsomeseriousun-developmentforthedevelopedworld.

Empire (2000),Multitude (2004), andCommonwealth (2009) by the American literaryscholarMichaelHardt(b.1960)andtheradicalItalianpoliticaltheoristAntonioNegri(b.1933)havebeenbothsupportedandattackedbybothLeftandRightandbyglobalizersand anti-globalizers. In Empire, they argue that the nation-state has been superseded,producinga‘newglobalformofsovereignty’thatisnotterritoriallybased.Theycontendthat what they call Empire is a necessary stage of development, parallel to MarxcontendingthatcapitalismwasanecessarystageinthedevelopmenttowardCommunism,and in the same sense that capitalism was better than the preceding forms of society,Empire is better than nationally based sovereignty.While some of the points made inEmpirearealreadyoutofdate,inthatitisnolongerpossibletoseetheUSAastheonlysuperpowerwith‘hegemonyovertheglobaluseofforce’,thisonlymodifiesthedetails,nottheirbasicargument.

TheyalsofollowMarxinthattheyarguethatEmpire,likecapitalism,producestheseedsofitsowndestruction,inthiscasewhattheycalltheMultitude,whichcanalmostbutnotquite be equated with the global anti-globalizationmovement. InCommonwealth, theyfocus on ‘the commons’, which they define broadly to include both the earth and itsresourcesand‘thoseresultsofsocialproduction thatarenecessaryforsocial interactionandfurtherproduction,suchasknowledges,languages,codes,information,affects,andsoforth’. They argue that neither should be owned privately or by a dominant state butavailableforcommonuse,aslandoncewasinmanytraditions.

It is possible to be a globalizer who opposes the current process of globalization. Forexample,fromaverydifferentperspective,JosephE.Stiglitz(b.1943),whowasaSeniorVice President and Chief Economist at theWorld Bank and shared the Nobel Prize inEconomics in 2001, argues vehemently against the globalization that is actually takingplacefromtheperspectiveofonewhobelievesthatglobalizationcanbeapositiveforce.

And this raises the final importantpoint;howyouseeglobalismandutopiadependsonwhere you stand. If you still have an income, youwill be able to buy certain productscheaperbecauseotherpeoplelosttheirjobs,andthatishowthemarketglobalizersseeit.Butthinkoftheknock-oneffectofthosejoblossestotheshops,cafes,andpubsandbarsthat gotmost of their business from thosewho lost their jobs.Theownersof the small

businesses lose theirbusinessesand theiremployees lose their jobs,and theplaces theyspent their money are also affected, homes are lost through the inability to pay themortgage,bankscollapse,aswehaveseenin2008/9,andsoon.

Andsuchthingsmeanthat it ismuchharderfor themultitudetoseeitselfasoneratherthanascompetingforsurvival,whichispreciselywhatthemarketglobalizerswant.Thereis,Ithink,stillutopianpotentialinglobalization,butithastocomefromtheglobalanti-globalizationmovementbuildingspacesofhope,tousethegeographerandsocialtheoristDavidHarvey’s(b.1933)phrase,locally.Wewillnotmakepovertyhistorywithslogans.Itcanonlybedonebynotbeingconnedbytherhetoricandinsteadbuildingoppositionalnetworkswhichactuallydosomething.

Chapter7Utopiaandideology

Theword‘ideology’wascoinedbytheFrenchthinkerAntoineDestuttdeTracy(1754–1836)inabout1794forwhathehopedwouldbecomeanewscienceofideas.Thatusagenevercaughton,butthewordwasadoptedbyothers,mostlyasanegativedescriptionofthewayspeoplemisleadthemselvesandothersthroughtheirbeliefs.Ofcourse,theword‘utopia’wascoinedmuchearlier,butthetwotermshavecometobeconnected,althoughinwaysthatcanbeconfusing.The20thcenturyhasbeencalledthe‘ageofideology’,andutopiahasbeenusedbothasacontrasttoideologyandinterchangeablywithideology.Forexample,whenCommunism,oneofthemostimportant20th-centuryideologies,begantocollapse,thiswasoftenlabelledtheendofutopia.

ThefirstpersontoassociateutopiaandideologywasKarlMannheim,inhis1929GermanbookIdeologieundutopieandhisverydifferent1936EnglishbookIdeologyandUtopia:AnIntroductiontotheSociologyofKnowledge.ForMannheim,ideologyandutopiawerecentral tohisunderstandingofhowandwhypeople think theway theydo,andhewassearching for non-evaluative concepts that would allow him to study the subjectobjectively.

He argued that the ideaswehave, thewaywe think, and thebeliefs that followare allinfluenced by our social situation. In particular, he called the beliefs of those in powerideologyandthebeliefsofthosewhohopedtooverturnthesystemutopia.Inbothcases,theirbeliefshidormaskedtherealityoftheirpositions.Ideologykeptthoseinpowerfrombecomingawareofanyweaknessesintheirposition;utopiakeptthoseoutofpowerfrombeingawareofthedifficultiesofchangingthesystem.Andbothkeptthebelieversfromseeingthestrengthsintheother’sposition.

17.KarlMannheim(1893–1947)wasasociologistborninHungarywhochose

exiletoGermanytoavoidthegrowingharshnessoftheCommunistregimethere,andthenexiletoEnglandtoavoidtheNationalSocialistregimeinGermany.Hewastheprimaryfounderofthesociologyofknowledge,andhis1929bookIdeologieund

Utopiebroughttheterms‘ideologyand‘utopia’togetherasdifferentwaysofunderstandingtheworld

Mannheim’spracticewastoputtogetherarticlesthathewroteatdifferenttimeswithoutsystematicrevision,whichresultsininconsistenciesinthekeyconcepts,buttheGermanedition of Ideology and Utopia was treated as a major intellectual event when it waspublishedin1929,givingrisetobothglowingandverynegativereviews.Inre-doingthe1936EnglisheditionfortheEnglishacademicaudience,Mannheimremovedtheprefaceand the very detailed table of contents and added essays and an introduction to thesociologyofknowledge.TheGermaneditionhasnosubtitle;theEnglisheditionhasthesubtitleAnIntroductiontotheSociologyofKnowledge,andmuchoftheaddedmaterialisspecificallydesignedtoexplainthesociologyofknowledgeandplacetherevisedmaterialfromtheGermaneditionwithinthatcontext.

In Ideology andUtopia,Mannheim argues that both ideology and utopia emerge frompoliticalconflict.Hewrote:

The concept ‘ideology’ reflects the one discovery which emerged from politicalconflict, namely, that ruling groups can in their thinking become so intensively

interest-boundtoasituation that theyaresimplyno longerable toseecertainfactswhich would undermine their sense of domination.… The concept of utopianthinkingreflectstheoppositediscoveryofthepoliticalstruggle,namelythatcertainoppressed groups are intellectually so strongly interested in the destruction andtransformationof a given conditionof society that theyunwittingly seeonly thoseelements in the situation which tend to negate it. Their thinking is incapable ofcorrectlydiagnosinganexistingconditionofsociety.Theyarenotatallconcernedwith what really exists; rather in their thinking they already seek to change thesituationthatexists.

But as the theologian Paul Tillich said in a review of the 1929 German edition, ‘Theutopian knows that his ideas are not real, but he believes they will become real. Theideologisttypicallydoesnotknowthis’.

WhileMannheimappearstoplacemostofhisemphasisonideology,heregularlypointstothe importance of utopia and contends that ultimately utopia is more important thanideology,saying,

whereas the decline of ideology represents a crisis only for certain strata, and theobjectivitywhichcomesfromtheunmaskingofideologiesalwaystakestheformofself-clarification for society as awhole, the complete disappearance of the utopianelementfromhumanthoughtandactionwouldmeanthathumannatureandhumandevelopment would take on a totally new character. The disappearance of utopiabringsaboutastaticstateofaffairs inwhichmanhimselfbecomesnomore thanathing.

Althoughtherewerepeoplewhodiscussedboth ideologyandutopia together,andsomescholars made significant contributions to our understanding of one or the other, afterMannheim,thewordsweremostlyusedseparately.Butinhis1975lecturesonthesubject,theFrenchphilosopherPaulRicoeurbroughtthembacktogether.Ricoeurarguedthatbothideologyandutopiahavepositiveandnegativecharacteristics.Ideology’snegativeformisdistortionandutopia’sisfantasy.Thetwopositiveaspectsofideologyare‘legitimation’and‘integrationoridentity’;theparallelpositiveaspectsofutopiaare‘analternateformofpower’and‘explorationofthepossible’.

18.PaulRicoeur(1913–2005)wasaFrenchphilosopherwhoisrecognizedasone

ofthemostsignificantphilosophersofthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury.From1968to1992hewastheJohnNuveenProfessorofPhilosophicalTheologyatthe

UniversityofChicagowherehegaveaseriesoflecturesonideologyandutopiaandtheirrelationship

Ideology tells a story, one that justifies or legitimates the existence and beliefs of thegroupand, indoing so,givesan identity to thegroup.But the stories aredistortionsofwhatactuallyhappened,anditisimportantto‘unmask’thisdistortion.

The central problem forRicoeur, as itwas forMannheim, is thepervasive influenceofideologyandhowitcanberecognizedfromwithin.AsRicoeurputit,‘Wethinkfromitspointofviewratherthanthinkingaboutit’.

Mannheim thought thatmovement among social classes, particularly bywhat he called‘free-floatingintellectuals’,madeitpossibletounderstandthesituationfromoutside,andhearguedthatutopiacouldbeacorrectivetoideology.ForRicoeur,oneofthefunctionsofutopiaistoundermineideology.

From ‘nowhere’ springs themost formidable question ofwhat is.Utopia thereforeappearsinitsprimitivecoreastheexactcounterpointofourfirstconceptofideologyasthefunctionofsocialintegration.Utopia,incounterpoint,isthefunctionofsocial

subversion.

Ricoeurcontendsthatutopiamakesitpossibletocriticizeideologywithouthavingtostepoutsideitsinfluence.Hewrites,

Thisismyconviction:theonlywaytogetoutofthecircularityinwhichideologiesengulf us is to assume a utopia, declare it, and judge an ideology on this basis.Because the absolute onlooker [Mannheim’s ‘free-floating intellectual’] isimpossible, thenit issomeonewithintheprocessitselfwhotakestheresponsibilityforjudgment.

Ricoeurarguesthatfromthenoplaceofutopiaitisourrealitythatlooksstrange.Asheputs it, ‘Doesnot the fantasyofanalternative societyand its exteriorization“nowhere”workasoneofthemostformidablecontestationsofwhatis?’Utopia’sabilitytounmaskideologyby stating that there are alternatives is clearlyoneof its positive aspects.Andutopia’sabilitytochallengeideologyis,forRicoeur,restorative.

Ricoeurisparticularlyconcernedwithhowutopiapresentsalternativewaysofdistributingpower,andhesometimesseemstoseeutopiasasprimarilyaboutpower,andevenmadethisoneofthetwopositiveaspectsofutopia.Andinrelationshiptoideology,thismakessense. The role of ideology is to support the current distribution of power; the role ofutopiaistosubvertthatdistribution.

Although Ricoeur spends much more time discussing ideology than he does utopia, itseemsthatutopiais,finally,moreimportantthanideology.Butthetwoclearlyinfluenceandchangeeachother.

Today,ideologycontinuestobeusednegativelytorefertothewayotherpeople’sbeliefsobscure the real situation, but it is also used by social scientists to refer to systems ofbelief,usuallypoliticalbeliefs, thatorganizeaperson’sviewof theworld.Thus,mostlywithout reference to utopia, ideology has become a central point of discussion in bothinternational and domestic politics and as a part of the way people think politically isstudied.

Ideologiesandutopiaarecloselyrelated.Thereisautopiaattheheartofeveryideology,apositivepicture–somevague,somequitedetailed–ofwhattheworldwouldlooklikeifthe hopes of the ideology were realized. And it is possible for a utopia to become anideology. The process by which utopia can become ideology is not entirely clear andundoubtedly varies from case to case, but it is likely that if a utopia is sufficientlyattractiveandpowerful,itcantransformhopeanddesireintobeliefandactiontobringtheutopiaintobeingthroughapoliticalorsocialmovement.Mostutopiasdonotgothroughthisprocessandmostthatdofail.Butifautopiabecomesabeliefsystemthatsucceedsincomingtopowerinasmallcommunity,acountry,orevenanumberofcountries,itwillalmost certainly have become an ideology in the process. At that point, it will bechallenged by one or more utopias, which may, but probably will not, succeed inoverthrowingtheideology,but,asbothMannheimandRicoeurargue,utopiasaretheway

inwhichideologiesarechallenged.

Conclusion

ArchibaldMacLeish,wholaterbecametheUSLibrarianofCongress,wrote:

ThetruthisthatthereisnosubstituteforUtopiaandnosubstituteforhopeandthatthe moment men give up their right to invent, however extravagantly, their ownfutureandsubmitthemselves,asthecommunistsandcapitaliststellthemtheymust,toinevitableeconomiclaw,thelifegoesoutofthem.

AndLeszekKolakowskiwrote:

togotothelengthofimaginingthatwecandesignsomeplanforthewholesocietywhereby harmony, justice and plenty are attained by human engineering is aninvitationtodespotism.

Whiletheword‘utopia’originatedataparticulartimeandplace,utopianismhasexistedineveryculturaltradition.Everywhereutopianismhasheldouthopeofabetterlife,andatthesametimequestionshavebeenraisedaboutboththespecificimprovementsproposedand, insomecases,whether improvement ispossible.Utopianismhasspurredpeople togreatefforts tobringaboutactualbetterment,and ithasbeenmisusedbyothers togainpower,prestige,money,andsoforthforthemselves.Andsomeutopiashavebeenturnedintodystopias,whileotherutopiashavebeenused todefeat thesesamedystopias.Thusutopiasareessentialbutpotentiallydangerous.

Andtheoristsandwritersofutopiashavebecomeawareofboththepoweranddangerofutopianismandhavepresenteduswithambiguous,lesscertain,andmorecomplexutopias– examples of what the Algerian-born French winner of the Nobel Prize in LiteratureAlbertCamus (1913–60)calleda ‘relativeutopia’ and JohnRawls (1921–2002),oneoftheleadingphilosophersofliberalism,calleda‘realisticutopia.Thisapproachavoidsoneof thegreatdangersofutopia– taking it too seriously.Oneneeds tobeable tobelievepassionatelyandalsobeabletoseetheabsurdityofone’sownbeliefsandlaughatthem.

UtopiacanbelikeGreektragedy.Humanityinitspridecommitsutopiaandindoingsoviolatestheboundariesofitsallottedsphere.Therefore,itmustconfrontnemesis,failtoachieveutopia,andpayforitseffronteryinattemptingtoachieveutopia.AsM.I.Finleynotes,movementsforsocialreform

turnoutnottohaveattainedUtopia,evenattheirbest,andthereisaninevitablelet-down. Voices are raised against both the social changes and the underlyingUtopianism,againstthepossibilityofhumanprogress,againstman’spotentialityforgood.

Thisalmostinevitabledialecticofhope,failureoratleastpartialfailure,despondencyandthe rejection of hope, followed in time by the renewal of hope, seems to be the basicpatternofsocialchangeandis,perhaps,theactuallogicofutopia,combining,asitdoes,parts of both previous logics. This dialectic is part of our humanity. Utopia is a tragicvisionofalifeofhope,butonethatisalwaysrealizedandalwaysfails.Wecanhope,fail,andhopeagain.Wecanlivewithrepeatedfailureandstillimprovethesocietieswebuild.

References

AllpassagesfromtheBiblearefromtheRevisedStandardVersion.

Introduction

Theopeningquotationsaretakenfrom:

MargePiercy,He,SheandIt(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991;UKedn.asBodyofGlass(London:MichaelJoseph,1992)).

Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (Boston: John W. Luce, 1910);originallypublishedinTheFortnightlyReview,55(ns49)(February1891):292–319.

ImmanuelWallerstein,Utopistics:orHistoricalChoicesoftheTwenty-FirstCentury(NewYork:TheNewPress,1998).

MaxBeerbohm,‘InaCopyofMore’s(orShaw’sorWells’sorPlato’sorAnybody’s)Utopia’,MaxinVerse:RhymesandParodiesbyMaxBeerbohm,collectedandannotatedbyJ.G.Riewald(Brattleboro,VT:TheStephenGreenePress,1963),54;ascribedtotheperiod1910–15.

ThomasBabingtonMacaulay, ‘LordBacon’,TheWorks of LordMacauley, 6 vols(Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1943).

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, Histoire des Girondins (Bruxelles:SociétédeBelge,1850).

Thomas More’s Utopia was first published as Libellus vere aureus nec minussalutaris quam festivus de optimo reip[ublicae]statu, deq[ue] noua InsulaVtopia (Louvain, Belgium: Arte Theodorice Martini, 1516). There are manytranslations available:Utopia: ARevised Translation, Backgrounds,Criticism,2nd edn., tr. and ed. Robert M. Adams (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992)includes considerable additionalmaterial about the book; andUtopia, tr. PaulTurner,revisededn.(Harmondsworth:Penguin,2003)makesthesatireandplayonwordsofthetextclear.

LeszekKolakowski, ‘TheDeath ofUtopiaReconsidered’,TheTannerLectures onHumanValue,vol.4,ed.SterlingM.McMurrin(SaltLakeCity,UT:Universityof Utah Press/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 227–47;reprinted in hisModernity on Endless Trial (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1990), 131–45. The lecture was delivered at the Australian National

University,22June1982.

LymanTowerSargent,‘TheThreeFacesofUtopianismRevisited’,UtopianStudies,5.1(1994):1–37.

RuthLevitas,TheConceptofUtopia(HemelHempstead:PhilipAllan/Syracuse,NY:SyracuseUniversityPress,1990).

Darko Suvin, ‘Defining the LiteraryGenre ofUtopia: SomeHistorical Semantics,SomeGenology,aProposalandaPlea’,StudiesintheLiteraryImagination,6(Autumn1973):121–45;reprintedinhisMetamorphosesofScienceFiction:OnthePoeticsandHistoryofaLiteraryGenre (NewHaven,CT:YaleUniversityPress,1979),37–62.

Chapter1

ThequotationsattheheadofthechapterarefromTeleclides’sAmphictyonies,quoted

in Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, VI: 268b-d, ed. and tr. S. DouglasOlson, 7 vols (Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress, 2008), 3: 235; andDiodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historiae, 58, tr. in Ernest Barker, FromAlexandertoConstantine(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1956),63.

Lewis Mumford, The Story of Utopias (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1922;reprintedNewYork:VikingPress,1962withanew‘Preface’bytheauthor).

LymanTowerSargent,‘TheThreeFacesofUtopianismRevisited’,UtopianStudies,5.1(1994):1–37.

Hesiod,‘WorksandDays’,TheogonyWorksandDaysTestimonia,ed.andtr.GlennW. Most (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006; Loeb ClassicalLibrary57).

Ovid, Metamorphoses, I: 89–112, tr. Mary M. Innes (Harmondsworth: Penguin,1955).

Lucian,TheWorksofLucianofSamosata,CompletewithExceptionsSpecifiedinthePreface,tr.H.W.FowlerandF.G.Fowler(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1905).

A.L.Morton,TheEnglishUtopia(London:LawrenceandWishart,1952).

Virgil,tr.H.RushtonFairclough,2vols,revisededn.(London:Heinemann,1965).

Plutarch,‘Lycurgus’,inPlutarch’sLives, tr.BernadottePerrin,11vols (Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1914),1.

Plato,TheRepublic, ed.G. R. F. Ferrari, tr. TomGriffith (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversityPress,2000).

‘TheSweetPotatoMountains’,quotedinGeorgeMilburn,TheHobo’sHornbook:ARepertoryforaGutterJongleur(NewYork:IvesWashington,1930).

The slave story comes from B. A. Botkin (ed.), Lay My Burden Down: A FolkHistoryofSlavery(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1945).

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (Boston, MA: Ticknor andCompany, 1888). Modern editions include those edited by Alex MacDonald(Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 2003) and by Matthew Beaumont(London:Penguin,2007).BellamyrevisedhisutopiainEquality(NewYork:D.Appleton,1897).

MargePiercy,WomanontheEdgeofTime(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1976).

WilliamMorris,‘LookingBackward’,TheCommonweal,5.180(June1889):194–5;reprintedinMayMorris,WilliamMorris:Artist,Writer,Socialist,vol.2,Morrisas a Socialistwith anAccount ofWilliamMorris as IKnewHimbyBernardShaw(Oxford:Blackwell,1936),501–7.

WilliamMorris,News fromNowhere; or, AnEpoch ofRest, Being SomeChaptersfromaUtopianRomance(Boston,MA:RobertsBros.,1890).Moderneditionsinclude thoseeditedbyJamesRedmond (London:RoutledgeandKeganPaul,1970)andbyKrishanKumar(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1995).

TomMoylan,DemandtheImpossible:ScienceFictionandtheUtopianImagination(London:Methuen,1986).

LucySargisson,ContemporaryFeministUtopianism(London:Routledge,1996).

LymanTowerSargent,‘TheProblemofthe“FlawedUtopia”:ANoteontheCostsofUtopia’,Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination, ed.RaffaellaBaccoliniandTomMoylan(London:Routledge,2003),225–31.

JoannaRuss,‘WhatCanaHeroineDo?OrWhyWomenCan’tWrite’,inImagesofWomen in Fiction; Feminist Perspectives, ed. Susan Koppelman Cornillon(BowlingGreen, OH: BowlingGreenUniversity Popular Press, 1972), 3–20;reprinted in her To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and ScienceFiction(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1995),79–93.

Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston(Berkeley,CA:BanyanTreeBooks,1975;reprintedNewYork:Bantam,1977).

Chapter2

ArthurEugeneBestor,Jr,BackwoodsUtopias:TheSectarianandOwenitePhasesof

CommunitarianSocialism inAmerica,1663–1829 (Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,1950;2ndedn.1970).

LymanTowerSargent,‘TheThreeFacesofUtopianismRevisited’,UtopianStudies,5.1(1994):1–37.

‘TheRuleofS.Benedict’,DocumentsoftheChristianChurch,ed.HenryBettenson,2ndedn.(London:OxfordUniversityPress,1963).

HenryNear,‘UtopianandPost-UtopianThought:TheKibbutzasModel’,CommunalSocieties,5(1985):41–58.

Lyman Tower Sargent, ‘The Ohu Movement in New Zealand: An Experiment inGovernment Sponsorship of Communal Living in the 1970s’, CommunalSocieties,19(1999):49–65.

Federation of Egalitarian Communities, <http://www.thefec.org/‘Principles’>accessed10May2010.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter,Commitment and Community: Communes and Utopias inSociologicalPerspective(Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1972).

HenryDemarestLloyd,quotedinCaroLloyd,HenryDemarestLloyd,1847–1903:ABiography,2vols(NewYork:Putnam,1912),II:66–7.

Hakim Bey [Peter LambornWilson], T. A. Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone,Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, 2nd edn. with a new preface (ix–xii)(Brooklyn,NY:Autonomedia,2003).

GeorgeMcKay (ed.),DiYCulture:Party andProtest inNinetiesBritain (London:Verso,1998).

JillDolan, ‘Performance,Utopia, and the “UtopianPerformative”Theatre Journal,53.3(October2001):455–79;revisedas‘“AFemme,aButch,aJew”:FeministAutobiographical Solo Performance’, in herUtopia in Performance: FindingHopeattheTheater (AnnArbor:UniversityofMichiganPress,2005),35–62,180–5.

Chapter3

James Belich,Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the

Anglo-World,1783–1939(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,2009).

Robert L. Wright (ed.), Irish Emigrant Ballads and Songs (Bowling Green, OH:BowlingGreenUniversityPopularPress,1975).

‘The Non-progressive Great Spirit – “Traditionalism in the Modern World”’,AkwesasneNotes,5(1973).

JohnWinthrop,LifeandLettersofJohnWinthrop,2vols(Boston,MA:TicknorandFields,1864–7).

RogerWilliams,Key into the Language of America (1643), quoted in George H.Williams, Wilderness and Paradise in Christian Thought: The BiblicalExperience in the History of Christianity and the Paradise Theme in theTheologicalIdeaoftheUniversity(NewYork:Harper,1962),103.

NadineGordimer,‘LivingintheInterregnum’,TheNewYorkReviewofBooks,29.21and22(20January1983):21–2,24–9;basedontheJamesLectureattheNew

YorkInstitutefortheHumanities,14October1982.

Chapter4

The quotations at the head of the chapter come from Father Sangermano, A

DescriptionoftheBurmeseEmpireCompiledChieflyfromNativeDocumentsbytheRevd.FatherSangermanoandTranslatedFromHisMSbyWilliamTandy,D.D. (Rome, printed for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain andIreland/JohnMurray,1833; reprintedRangoon:TheGovernmentPress,1885),pp.8–9;andfromtheTaoTeChing(80thchapter)asquotedinJosephNeedhamwithresearchassistanceofWangLing,vol.2ofHistoryofScientificThoughtofScience and Civilisation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1956).

Ontheproposedconstitutions,seeKoon-kiT.Ho,‘SeveralThousandYearsinSearchofHappiness:TheUtopianTraditioninChina,OriensExtremus(Germany),30(1983–6):19–35.

OnK’angYu-wei,seeKung-ChuanHsiao,AModernChinaandaNewWorld:K’angYu-wei,ReformerandUtopian,1858–1927 (Seattle:University ofWashingtonPress,1975).

Donald Keene, ‘The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter’, Monumenta Nipponica, 11.1(January1956):329–55;‘Introduction’(329);translationwithnotes(330–54).

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, tr. Edward FitzGerald (London: Penguin, 1989).Originally published asRubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Astronomer-Poet ofPersia. Translated into English Verse (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1859); analternative modern translation is by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs(London:Penguin,2004).

IbnTufail,TheJourneyoftheSoul:TheStoryofHaibinYaqzan,astoldbyAbuBakrMuhammadbinTufail,tr.RiadKocache(London:OctagonPress,1982).AlsoasIbnTufayl,HayyIbnYaqzan:APhilosophicalTale,tr.SimonOckley(London:Chapman andHall, 1929); and tr. LennEvanGoodman (NewYork: Twayne,1972).

Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini, Islamic Government, tr. JointPublicationsResearchService(NewYork:ManorBooks,1979).

On the Islamist utopias, see Christian Szyska, ‘On Utopian Writing in NasseristPrison and Laicist Turkey’,Welt des Islams, 35.1 (April 1995): 95–125; andSohrabBehdad,‘IslamicUtopiainPre-RevolutionaryIran:NavvabSafaviandthe Fadai’an-e Eslam [Crusaders of Islam]’, Middle Eastern Studies, 33.1(January1997):40–65.

SimonGikandi,quotedintheTimesLiterarySupplement,no.5392(4August2006):21.

Chapter5

DracontiusisquotedinEleanorS.Duckett,LatinWritersoftheFifthCentury(New

York:HenryHolt,1930),85.

Judith Shklar, ‘The Political Theory of Utopia: From Melancholy to Nostalgia’,Utopias and Utopian Thought, ed. Frank E. Manuel (Boston, MA: BeaconPress,1967/London:SouvenirPress,1973),101–15.

‘BookofJubilees’,‘TheSibyllineBookofOracles’,and‘IIBaruch’canbefoundinR. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament inEnglishwith Introductions andCritical andExplanatoryNotes to the SeveralBooks,2vols(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1913).

Lactantius,TheDivine Institutes, tr. Rev.William Fletcher, D.D. The Ante-NiceneFathers:TranslationsoftheWritingsoftheFathersdowntoA.D.325,AmericanreprintoftheEdinburghEdition,ed.Rev.AlexanderRoberts,D.D.,andJamesDonaldson, LL.D, revised and chronologically arranged, with Brief Prefacesand Occasional Notes by A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D. Volume VII, Lactantius,Venantius,Victorinus,Dionysius,ApostolicTeachingandConstitutions.Homily,and Liturgies, authorized edn. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark/Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdmans,1990reprint),219–20.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of Earth’s Last Days(Wheaton,IL:TyndaleHousePublishers,1995).Therearetwelvesequelsplusgraphicnovels,videos,videogames,books for children, and relatedproducts.See<http://www.leftbehind.com>(accessed10May2010)forallthebooksandrelatedmaterials.

The Voyage of St Brendan: Representative Versions of the Legend in EnglishTranslation, ed.W. R. J. Barron and Glyn S. Burgess (Exeter: University ofExeter Press, 2002; 2nd edn. 2005). On the Irish voyages, see TomMoylan,‘Irish Voyages and Visions: Pre-Figuring, Re-Configuring Utopia’, UtopianStudies,18.3(2007):299–323.OnPresterJohn,seeVsevolodSlessarev,PresterJohn:TheLetterandtheLegend(Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1959).

‘TheApocalypse of Paul’, tr. J.K.Elliott, inApocryphal New Testament (Oxford:ClarendonPress,1993).

KrishanKumar,ReligionandUtopia (Canterbury:Centre for theStudyofReligionandSociety,UniversityofKentatCanterbury,1985;PamphletLibraryNo.8).

Thomas Molnar, Utopia: The Perennial Heresy (New York: Sheed and Ward,1967/London:TomStacey,1972).

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vols (New York: CharlesScribner,1941;reprintedLouisville,KY:WestminsterJohnKnoxPress,1996).

PaulTillich, ‘ThePoliticalMeaningofUtopia’, tr.WilliamJ.Crout,WalterBense,

andJamesL.Adams,inhisPoliticalExpectation(NewYork:HarperandRow,1971),125–80.

MartinBuber,PathsinUtopia,tr.R.F.C.Hull(London:RoutledgeandKeganPaul,1949/NewYork:Macmillan,1950).

Chapter6

LymanTowerSargent,‘UtopiaandtheLateTwentiethCentury:AViewfromNorth

America’,inUtopia:TheSearchfortheIdealSocietyintheWesternWorld,ed.Roland Schaer, Gregory Claeys, and Lyman Tower Sargent (New York: TheNewYorkPublicLibrary/OxfordUniversityPress,2000),333–45.

ThequotationsfromKarlPoppercomefrom‘UtopiaandViolence’,HibbertJournal,46 (January1948):109–16; reprinted inWorldAffairs, 149.1 (Summer1986):3–9, and in his Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of ScientificKnowledge(London:RoutledgeClassics,2002),477–88.

Richard Mollica, quoted in Philip Gourevitch, ‘Letter from Rwanda: After theGenocide’,TheNewYorker,71(18December1995):84.

RalfDahrendorf,‘OutofUtopia:TowardaReorientationofSociologicalAnalysis’,AmericanJournalofSociology,64(September1958):115–27.

Judith Shklar, ‘The Political Theory of Utopia: From Melancholy to Nostalgia’,Utopias and Utopian Thought, ed. Frank E. Manuel (Boston: Beacon Press,1967/London:SouvenirPress,1973),101–15.

LeszekKolakowski, ‘TheDeath ofUtopiaReconsidered’,TheTannerLectures onHumanValue,vol.4,ed.SterlingM.McMurrin(SaltLakeCity,UT:Universityof Utah Press/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 227–47;reprinted in hisModernity on Endless Trial (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1990), 131–45. The lecture was delivered at the Australian NationalUniversity,22June1982.

H.G.Wells,MenLikeGods(London:Cassell,1923).

Jacob Talmon, Utopianism and Politics (London: Conservative Political Centre,1957).

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Richard Tuck (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress,1991).

George Kateb, ‘Utopia and the Good Life’, inUtopias and Utopian Thought, ed.FrankE.Manuel(Boston:BeaconPress,1967/London:SouvenirPress,1973),239–59.

AdamSmith,TheTheoryofMoralSentiments,ed.D.D.RaphaelandA.L.Macfie(Indianapolis:LibertyFund,1982).

ImmanuelKant,quotedinIsaiahBerlin,TheCrookedTimberofHumanity:ChaptersintheHistoryofIdeas,ed.HenryHardy(London:JohnMurray,1990),epigramp.v.

ArthurKoestler,‘TheYogiandtheCommissar’,Horizon,5.30(June1942):381–92;reprintedinTheYogiandtheCommissar(London:JonathanCape,1945).

BarbaraGoodwinandKeithTaylor,ThePoliticsofUtopia:AStudy inTheoryandPractice(London:Hutchinson,1982).

Quentin Skinner, Liberty Before Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress,1998).

Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope, tr. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice, and PaulKnight,3vols(Oxford:Blackwell,1986).

M. I. Finley, ‘UtopianismAncient andModern’, in The Critical Spirit: Essays inHonorofHerbertMarcuse, ed.KurtWolffandBarringtonMoore, Jr (Boston,MA:BeaconPress,1967).

FrederickL.Polak,TheImageoftheFuture:EnlighteningthePast,OrientatingthePresent, Forecasting the Future, tr. Elise Boulding, 2 vols (Leyden, TheNetherlands:A.W.Sythoff/NewYork:Oceana,1961).

Fredric Jameson, ‘Comments’, Utopian Studies, 9.2 (1998): 74–7. Jameson isrespondingtoaspecialissueofthejournaldevotedtohiswork.

The quotations from Zygmunt Bauman come from Socialism: The Active Utopia(NewYork:HolmesandMeier,1976);‘Conclusion:UtopiawithNoTopos’,inhisSociety underSiege (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002), 222–41, 251–2; andDoes Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? (Cambridge, MA:HarvardUniversityPress,2008).

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress,2000).

DavidHarvey,SpacesofHope(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress/Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversityPress,2000).

Chapter7

Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of

Knowledge, tr. Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (New York: Harcourt, Brace,1936;newedn.London:Routledge,1991).TheEnglisheditionbringstogetherhisIdeologieundUtopie(Bonn:Cohen,1929)andotheressaysbyMannheim.

PaulTillich,‘OnIdeologyandUtopia’,tr.StevenP.BucherandDeniseSiemssen,inKnowledgeandPolitics:TheSociologyofKnowledgeDispute,ed.VolkerMejaandNicoStehr(London:Routledge,1990),107–12.

The quotations from Paul Ricoeur are fromLectures on Ideology andUtopia, ed.GeorgeH.Taylor(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,1986);‘IdeologyandIdeologyCritique’,PhenomenologyandMarxism,ed.BernhardWaldenfels,JanM.Broekman,andAntePa anin, tr.J.ClaudeEvans(Boston,MA:RoutledgeandKeganPaul,1984),134–64;and‘ImaginationinDiscourseandAction,TheHumanBeinginAction:TheIrreducibleElementinMan.PartII:InvestigationsattheIntersectionofPhilosophyandPsychiatry,ed.Anna-TeresaTymieniecka,vol. 7 ofAnalectaHusserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research(Dordrecht:Reidel,1978).

Conclusion

The quotations at the beginning of the chapter are from Archibald MacLeish,

‘Preface to an American Manifesto’, Forum, 91.4 (April 1934): 195–8; andLeszek Kolakowski, quoted in George Urban, ‘A Conversation with LeszekKolakowski,TheDevilinHistory’,Encounter,56.1(January1981).

Lyman Tower Sargent, ‘The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A Cross-NationalPerspective’,ThinkingUtopia:StepsintoOtherWorlds,ed.JörnRüsen,MichaelFehr,andThomasW.Rieger(NewYork:BerghahnBooks,2005),1–14.

Albert Camus,Neither Victims nor Executioners, tr. DwightMacdonald (Chicago:WorldWithoutWarPublications,1972).

JohnRawls,TheLawofPeoples(Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,1999).

M.I.Finley,‘UtopianismAncientandModern’,TheCriticalSpirit;EssaysinHonorofHerbertMarcuse, ed. KurtWolff and BarringtonMoore, Jr (Boston,MA:BeaconPress,1967),3–20.

Furtherreading

Introduction

The best overviews areKrishanKumar,Utopia and Anti-Utopia inModern Times

(Oxford: Blackwell, 1987); Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel,UtopianThought in the Western World (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of HarvardUniversity, 1979); and Roland Schaer, Gregory Claeys, and Lyman TowerSargent (eds.),Utopia:The Search for the Ideal Society in theWesternWorld(NewYork:TheNewYorkPublicLibrary/OxfordUniversityPress,2000).

Chapter1

ThebestoverviewofclassicalutopianismisJohnFerguson,UtopiasoftheClassical

World(London:ThamesandHudson,1975).

There is very little on theMiddle Ages, but see F. Graus, ‘Social Utopias in theMiddleAges’,tr.BernardStandring,PastandPresent,38(December1967):3–19; and Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London: Secker andWarburg,1957).

Thebestbooksonthe16thand17thcenturiesareJ.C.Davis,UtopiaandtheIdealSociety: A Study of English Utopian Writing 1516–1700 (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1981); and Miriam Eliav-Feldon, RealisticUtopias:TheIdealImaginarySocietiesoftheRenaissance,1516–1630(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1982).

On National Socialist utopias, see Jost Hermand, Old Dreams of a New Reich:VolkishUtopiasandNationalSocialism,tr.PaulLevesqueincollaborationwithStefanSoldovieri(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1992).

Chapter2

The closest there is to a general overview is Donald E. Pitzer (ed.), America’s

Communal Utopias (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press,

1997).

Onthekibbutz,seeHenryNear,TheKibbutzMovement:AHistory,2vols(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress/TheLittmanLibraryofJewishCivilization,1992–7).

Forcontemporaryeco-villages,seeJanMartinBang,Ecovillages:APracticalGuidetoSustainableCommunities(Edinburgh:FlorisBooksandGabriolaIsland,BC,Canada: New Society Publishers, 2005); Barbro Grindheim and DeclanKennedy(eds.),DirectoryofEco-Villages inEurope (Steyerberg:GlobalEco-Village Network (GEN) Europe, 1998); and Barbara Knudsen (ed.), Eco-VillagesandCommunitiesinAustraliaandNewZealand(Maleny,Queensland:GlobalEco-VillageNetwork(GEN)Oceania/Asia,2000).

On co-housing, see Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, Cohousing: AContemporaryApproach toHousingOurselves,2ndedn.withEllenHertzman(Berkeley,CA:TenSpeedPress,1994).

On therapeutic communities, see Association of Therapeutic Communities –<http://www.therapeuticcommunities.org>accessed10May2010.

On the utopian socialists, see Keith Taylor, The Political Ideas of the UtopianSocialists(London:FrankCass,1982).

Chapter3

Onsettlerutopianism,seeJamesBelich,‘SettlerUtopianism?:EnglishIdeologiesof

Emigration, 1815–1880, in Liberty, Authority, Formality: Political Ideas andCulture, 1600–1900, Essays inHonour ofColinDavis, ed. JohnMorrow andJonathan Scott (Exeter: Imprint-Academic, 2008), 213–34; and Lyman TowerSargent, ‘Colonial andPost-ColonialUtopias’, forthcoming inTheCambridgeCompaniontoUtopianLiterature,ed.GregoryClaeys(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress).

OnutopianisminearlyAmerica,seeLymanTowerSargent,‘UtopianisminColonialAmerica’,HistoryofPoliticalThought,4.3(Winter1983):483–522.

OnMore’sinfluenceinSpanishAmerica,seeSilvioZavala,SirThomasMoreinNewSpain: A Utopian Adventure of the Renaissance (London: The Hispanic andLuso-BrazilianCouncils,1955).

On Bartolome de las Casas, see Victor N. Baptiste, Bartolome de las Casas andThomasMore’s‘Utopia’:ConnectionsandSimilarities,ATranslationandStudy(CulverCity,CA:Labyrinthos,1990),whichincludesatranslationofMemorialdeRemediosparalasIndias/MemorialofRemediesfortheIndies.

On Vasco de Quiroga, see Fintan B.Warren,Vasco de Quiroga and His Pueblo-Hospitals of Santa Fe (Washington, DC: Academy of American FranciscanHistory,1963).

On the Jesuit ‘reductions’, see Stelio Cro, ‘From More’s Utopia to the JesuitReduccionesinParaguay’,Moreana,42.164(December2005):92–117.

Ontheeijdosattheirpeak,seeHenrikF.InfieldandKokaFreier,PeopleinEjidos:AVisittotheCooperativeFarmsofMexico(NewYork:Praeger,1954).

Ongardencities,RobertBeevers,TheGardenCityUtopia:ACriticalBiographyofEbenezer Howard (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1988); Stanley Buder,Visionaries and Planners: The Garden City Movement and the ModernCommunity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); Robert Freestone,Model Communities: The Garden City Movement in Australia (Melbourne:ThomasNelsonAustralia,1989);andStephenV.Ward(ed.),TheGardenCity:Past,PresentandFuture(London:Spon,1992).

Chapter4

The only overviews of the material in this chapter are a forthcoming essay by

Jacqueline Dutton in The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature, ed.GregoryClaeys(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress);andZhangLongxi,‘The Utopian Vision, East and West’, Utopian Studies, 13.1 (2002): 1–20(revised in ‘TheUtopianVision, East andWest’,ThinkingUtopia: Steps intoOtherWorlds, ed. Jörn Ruüsen, Michael Fehr, and ThomasW. Rieger (NewYork: Berghahn Books, 2005), 207–29), which is primarily concerned withChina.

OnChineseutopianism,seeWolfgangBauer,Chinaand theSearch forHappiness:Recurring Themes in Four Thousand Years of Chinese Cultural History, tr.Michael Shaw (New York: Seabury Press, 1976); Koon-ki T. Ho, ‘SeveralThousand Years in Search of Happiness: The Utopian Tradition in China’,Oriens Extremus (Germany), 30 (1983–6): 19–35; and Ho, ‘Utopianism: AUniqueThemeinWesternLiterature?AShortSurveyofChineseUtopianism’,TamkangReview,13.1(Autumn1982):87–108.

On theGandhian utopia, seeRichardG.Fox,GandhianUtopia:ExperimentswithCulture(Boston,MA:BeaconPress,1989).

Chapter5

While there are many specialist articles, there are few that discuss Christian

utopianismgenerally.

On the millennium, see Kenelm Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth: A Study ofMillenarianActivities(Oxford:Blackwell,1969).

Onheavenandhell,seeColleenMcDannellandBernhardLang,Heaven:AHistory(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988); and Alice K. Turner, TheHistoryofHell(NewYork:Harcourt,Brace,1993).

Onmonasticism,seeGeorgeA.Hillery,Jr,andPaulaC.Morrow,‘TheMonasteryasa Commune’, International Review of Modern Sociology, 6.1 (Spring 1976):139–54 (reprinted as only by Hillery in Communes: Historical andContemporary,ed.RuthShonleCavanandManSinghDas(NewDelhi,India:VikasPublishingHouse,1979),152–69).

OnJewishutopianism,seeMichaelHigger,TheJewishUtopia(Baltimore:TheLordBaltimorePress,1932).

Chapter6

At the time of writing, there is no general study of the role utopianism plays in

politicaltheory.

Chapter7

The best introduction to ideology is Michael Freeden, Ideology: A Very Short

Introduction(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,2003).

Index

Africa(includingindividualcountries)53,55,62–63,67,78–81,84–85,102

alternativesociety,seeintentionalcommunity

anarchism69

Australia51,53–54,56,60,64–65

Bauman,Zygmunt113–15

Bellamy,Edward20,24–26,112

Bloch,Ernst7,99,109–11

Buddhism20,35,43,67–69,71,75–76,81,75,82

Canada38,51,56,60

Caribbean54,102

China67–78,81–84

People’sRepublicof42,84,102

Christianity7,35–40,61–62,67–68,74,81–101,112

Apocrypha90–97

Bible86–95

heresy98

NewTestament37,87,91–93

OldTestament15,55,77,87–91

originalsin68,88,98–99

recentChristiantheology98–101

SecondComingofChrist87,95,97–98,112

socialgospel99

cockaigne/cokaygne12,15;16,54

co-housing45

colonialism50–65

colonies,settler50–51

communes,seeintentionalcommunities

communism9,68,102–03,107

Confucianism67–69,71

cooperation82

dystopia2,4,21,26–29,31,33,53–54,60,62,71,77,79,97,102,109,115,126–27

eco-villages44–45

education73

eugenics26–27,38

Europe(includingindividualcountries)9,27,30,33,39,46,54,102

eutopia2

experimentalcommunity,seeintentionalcommunity

festivals12,15,48

gardencities64,82

globalization41,85,115–17

Gulliveriana24

Hardt,Michael116

heaven96–98

hell97–98

Hinduism35,43,67,72,81

Hinduvatamovement74,81

ideology7,102,107,118–25

immigration50–51,54,57–58,63

involuntary54

indenturedservants57–58

India67,72–74,81–82

intentionalcommunities6–8,30,33–48,50,63–65,81–84,seealsoco-housing,eco-village,andutopianpractice

Chinese42

contemporary44–46

defined34

dystopian42,64,109

inLiberationTheology100

lesbian48

religious65,85,101

secular65,85

sixties42–44

successorfailure46–47

therapeutic46

Ireland12,28,39,54,95

Northern54

Islam67–70,72,74–78,85

Islamism9,55,78,102

Israel40–41,55–56,65

Jameson,Fredric113

Japan67,74–77,81–82

Judaism35,55,86,88–92

kibbutz40–41,55

Kolakowski,Leszak5,104,126

LeftBehindseries94–95

Mannheim,Karl7,118–21,123,125

Mexico43,61,64

millenarianism55,86–87,92–96,98,100

indigenous52–53

monasticism36–37,81,86

More,Thomas,Utopia2–4,10–11,16,19,22–23,61,67,74,85,104

myth19–20,76,85,89,94,96

classic13–16,68,68,72–73,86–88,94,99,

creation13–14,52,63

LastWorldEmperor94

PresterJohn95–96

StBrendan’sIsland95

Shambhala/Shangri-La20,70

NationalSocialism102–03,107

Negri,Antonio116

NewWorld88

NewZealand41,51,53,56,60,65

NorthAmerica38,42–43,53

Palestine41,55–56

perfection103–04,113–14

Polak,FrederickL.7,111

Popper,KarlR.103–08

practicalutopia,seeintentionalcommunity

reason105

reform105,107

reformation,radical98

religion 7, 21, 28, 35, 56–57, 85–101, 112 see also Buddhism, Confucianism,Christianity,Hinduism,Islam,Shinto,andTaoism

Ricoeur,Paul121–125

Robinsonade24

sex12,15,28,35,38,42,78

Shinto67,74–75

slavery54,84

SouthAfrica62–63

SouthAmerica(includingindividualcountries)52–54,56,60–62,64,100

SoutheastAsia(includingindividualcountries)33,66–67,74,102,107

SovietUnion,seeUnionofSovietSocialistRepublics

Taoism66–67,70–71,74–75

technology70

ThirdWorld90,116

Tillich,Paul99–100

UnionofSovietSocialistRepublics9,102,107

UnitedKingdom29,38–39,44,58,82,84

UnitedStates38–39,41,46,51,54,56–59

utopiancommunity,seeintentionalcommunity

utopianexperiment,seeintentionalcommunity

utopianpractice5–7,33–49,seealsointentionalcommunities

performanceas33,48–49

protestas33,48

TAZ/TemporaryAutonomousZoneas48

utopiansocialtheory5,7

utopiansocialism39

utopianism

andeverydaylife4–5,7,49

andpoliticaltheory102–17

caseagainst103–09

casefor103–09

endof102–03

environmental31,115–16

feminist30–31,70,113

indigenous50–54,61

literary5–6,8,24,31–32,50

postcolonial63

threefacesof5

utopia(s)

abstract111

andideology118–25

body12

concrete111

critical30

defined5–6

endof118

flawed30

law-based91

lesbian31

ofescape12

sixties30–31

transgressive30

war26,29,38,90

work35

SOCIOLOGYAVeryShortIntroductionSteveBruce

Drawing on studies of social class, crime and deviance, work in bureaucracies, andchangesinreligiousandpoliticalorganizations,thisVeryShortIntroductionexploresthetension between the individual’s role in society and society’s role in shaping theindividual,anddemonstratesthevalueofsociologyasaperspectiveforunderstandingthemodernworld.

‘SteveBrucehasmadeanexcellentjobofadifficulttask,onewhichfewpractisingsociologists could have accomplished with such aplomb. The arguments areprovocatively and intelligently presented, and the tone and the style are alsolaudable.’

GordonMarshall,UniversityofOxford

www.oup.co.uk/vsi/sociology