Political Uses of Utopia: New Marxist, Anarchist, and Radical Democratic Perspectives (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780231179584)

Utopia has long been banished from political theory, framed as an impossible--and possibly dangerous--political ideal, a flawed social blueprint, or a thought experiment without any practical import. Even the "realistic utopias" of liberal theory strike many as wishful thinking. Can politics think utopia otherwise? Can utopian thinking contribute to the renewal of politics?

In Political Uses of Utopia, an international cast of leading and emerging theorists agree that the uses of utopia for politics are multiple and nuanced and lie somewhere between--or, better yet, beyond--the mainstream caution against it and the conviction that another, better world ought to be possible. Representing a range of perspectives on the grand tradition of Western utopianism, which extends back half a millennium and perhaps as far as Plato, these essays are united in their interest in the relevance of utopianism to specific historical and contemporary political contexts. Featuring contributions from Miguel Abensour, Étienne Balibar, Raymond Geuss, and Jacques Rancière, among others, Political Uses of Utopia reopens the question of whether and how utopianism can inform political thinking and action today.

Author: S. Chrostowska
ISBN-10: 0231179588
ISBN-13: 9780231179584
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/21/2017
Pages: 376
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2017