Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction

ISBN-13: 9780199573400 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 160 str.

and Professo Lyman Tower (Victoria University of Wellington

Opis

There are many debates about what constitutes a utopia. Are utopias benign or dangerous? Is the idea of utopianism essential to Christianity or heretical? What is the relationship between utopia and ideology? In this Very Short Introduction, Lyman Sargent, one of the leading scholars in the field of utopian studies, explores these issues and examines utopianism and its history, discussing the role of utopianism in literature and in the development of colonies and in immigration. The idea of utopia has become commonplace in social and political thought, both negatively and positively. Sargent notes that some thinkers see a trajectory from utopia to totalitarianism, with violence an inevitable part of the mix. Others see utopia directly connected to freedom and as a necessary element in the fight against totalitarianism. In Christianity, utopia is labeled as both heretical and as a fundamental part of Christian belief, and such debates are also central to such fields as architecture, town and city planning, and sociology among many others. Sargent addresses all these issues in this clear, compact introduction.

Spis treści

From the contents:

Preface and acknowledgements
1: The forms of Utopian literature
2: Intentional communities
3: Nonwestern utopianism
4: Settler/colonial utopianism
5: Utopia and political theory
6: Ideology and utopia
7: Utopia and Christianity
Conclusion
References and further reading

O autorze

Lyman Sargent is a Fellow of the Stout Research Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington and a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the primary bibliographer in the field of utopian literature and he founded the journal Utopian Studies and the Utopianism and Communitarian series published by Syracuse University Press. He has been awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award of both the Society for Utopian Studies and the Communal Studies Association.