The previous chapter envisioned, conceptually, what a psychology-informed progressive society might look like. In this chapter, following the tradition of literary utopias, I want to take this description one step further by switching in to a narrative, fictional account of what it might be like to experience such a world. This chapter feels risky: I am not a fictional writer, and this is the first time I have included an entirely fictional section in any of my books. But I wanted to give as concrete and vivid as possible a sense of what that better world
individual, each community, and the planet as a whole? That is the subject matter of the present chapter, which critically explores the nature of a far future progressive utopia, based on the psychological principles outlined in Chapters 3 and 4 , the system-wide principles of cooperative organisation set out in Chapters 5 and 6 , and then the practical steps of Chapter 7 . The chapter begins by setting out why utopian thinking may be so important for progressives, and then defines utopias in terms of the realisation of highest-order needs and wants. On this basis
Auroville in Tamil Nadu, South India, is an internationally recognised endeavour in prefiguring an alternative society: the largest, most diverse, dynamic and enduring of intentional communities worldwide.
This book is a critical and insightful analysis of the utopian practice of this unique spiritual township, by a native scholar. The author explores how Auroville’s founding spiritual and societal ideals are engaged in its communal political and economic organisation, as well as various cultural practices and what enables and sustains this prefiguratively utopian practice.
This in-depth, autoethnographic case-study is an important resource for understanding prefigurative and utopian experiments – their challenges, potentialities, and significance for the advancement of human society.
139 15 Utopia on your doorstep? Part Three of this book set out just a few of the possible solutions to the key problems which we face. Many of these could be adopted tomorrow if we had the will to achieve them. However, each one of these ideas on its own will not meet the high test of a modern utopia nor will it excite much political interest. The real task is to draw all these solutions together and see what that might offer by way of a new society. This was the vision that those, such as Ebenezer Howard and William Morris, set out over a century ago and
143 16 Too late for utopia? This book has set out not just why we need to change, but also some of the practical measures we could take now to secure our future. Given that all of this is achievable and affordable right now we have to confront the question: what is stopping us? There is also an unsettling second question, driven more than anything by the climate crisis; how long do we have? Have we passed the point where the struggle for a better society will be replaced by the simple struggle for survival? In short, is it too late for utopia? Rebuilding
449 EIGHTEEN Utopia calling: eradicating child poverty in the United Kingdom and beyond Ruth Levitas 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UNICEF, 2009). It marked the 10th anniversary of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s pledge to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020 and to halve it by 2010. And 2010 was also the European year of combating poverty and social exclusion. That the European Union (EU) designated a specific year for this indicates the subordination of its social goals to
37 THREE European utopias This chapter sets England’s current poor performance in the wider context of European experience of policy on the built environment, including in relation to the other nations of Britain. There are many examples of utopian thinking and no perfect model; however, an exploration of the diversity of international approaches to place- making and to the values that underpin these approaches, not only starkly highlights how far England has fallen behind, but also some of the possible ways we can put the nation back on track. World
13 TWO Utopia abandoned? In this chapter we look at the decline of planning in England and set out the key reform measures introduced since 2015. The process of the decline of planning in England did not start in 2015 or in 2010, and the reasons why it came about are complicated. We recognise that the current government is not solely responsible for extinguishing the utopian values that once underpinned the town planning movement. One cannot honestly say, that for a generation, planning has always upheld beauty in design or social inclusion. Planning has
125 14 Paying for utopia Roads are made, streets are made, railway services are improved, electric light turns night into day, electric trams glide swiftly to and fro, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains – and all the while the landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labour and cost of other people. Many of the most important are effected at the cost of the municipality and of the ratepayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist contribute, and yet by every one of them
our feet. Utopianism and responsibility How can we believe in hope as open-endedly capable of creating new possibilities, and yet recognize and guard against any tendency inherent in it to mislead us as to how far that capability extends? The best way to get a practical handle on this question is to ask: how can we be responsibly utopian? The word utopia is ambiguous. Etymologically, it renders Ancient Greek ou-topia , meaning literally no-place, or by extension, a non-existent place. Explicit utopias from Thomas More’s onwards have always been
