Concrete Utopianism

Download Concrete Utopianism full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Concrete Utopianism ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Concrete Utopianism

Author : Gary Wilder
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823299899
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Concrete Utopianism by : Gary Wilder

Download or read book Concrete Utopianism written by Gary Wilder and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist, 2022 Big Other Book Award for Nonfiction Never before has it been more important for Left thinking to champion expansive visions for societal transformation. Yet influential currents of critical theory have lost sight of this political imperative. Provincial notions of places, periods, and subjects obstruct our capacity to invent new alignments and envision a world we wish to see. Political imagination is misread as optimism. Utopianism is conflated with idealism. Revolutionary traditions of non-liberal universalism and non-bourgeois humanism are rendered illegible. Negative critique becomes an end in itself. Pessimism is mistaken for radicalism and political fatalism risks winning the day. In this book, Gary Wilder insists that we place solidarity and temporality at the center of our political thinking. He develops a critique of Left realism, Left culturalism, and Left pessimism from the standpoint of heterodox Marxism and Black radicalism. These traditions offer precious resources to relate cultural singularity and translocal solidarity, political autonomy and worldwide interdependence. They develop modes of immanent critique and forms of poetic knowledge to envision alternative futures that may already dwell within our world: traces of past ways of being, knowing, and relating that persist within an untimely present; or charged residues of unrealized possibilities that were the focus of an earlier generation’s dreams and struggles; or opportunities for dialectical reversals embedded in the contradictory tendencies of the given order. Concrete Utopianism makes a bold case for embracing what Wilder calls a politics of the possible-impossible. Attentive to the non-identical character of places, periods, and subjects, insisting that axes of political alignment and contestation are neither self-evident nor unchanging, reworking Lenin’s call to “transform the imperial war into a civil war,” he invites Left thinkers see beyond inherited distinctions between here and there, now and then, us and them. Guided by the spirit of Marx’s call for revolutionaries to draw their poetry from a future they cannot fathom yet must nevertheless invent, he calls for practices of anticipation that envision and enact, call for and call forth, seemingly impossible ways of being together. He elaborates a critical orientation that emphasizes the dialectical relations between aesthetics and politics, political imagination and transformative practice, concrete interventions and revolutionary restructuring, past dreams and possible worlds, means of struggle and its ultimate aims. This orientation requires nonrealist epistemologies that do not mistake immediate appearances with the really real. Such epistemologies would allow critics to recognize uncanny and untimely aspects of social life, whether oppressive or potentially emancipatory. They may help actors to render the world subversively uncanny and untimely. They may clear pathways for the kind of critical internationalism and concrete utopianism that Left politics cannot afford to ignore.

Utopianism, Modernism, and Literature in the Twentieth Century

Author : A. Reeve-Tucker
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137336625
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (373 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Utopianism, Modernism, and Literature in the Twentieth Century by : A. Reeve-Tucker

Download or read book Utopianism, Modernism, and Literature in the Twentieth Century written by A. Reeve-Tucker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utopianism, Modernism, and Literature in the Twentieth Century considers the links between utopianism and modernism in two ways: as an under-theorized nexus of aesthetic and political interactions; and as a sphere of confluences that challenges accepted critical models of modernist and twentieth-century literary history. An international group of scholars considers works by E. M. Forster, Ford Madox Ford, Wyndham Lewis, Naomi Mitchison, Katharine Burdekin, Rex Warner, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Thomas Pynchon, Elizabeth Bowen, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Ernst Bloch. In doing so, this volume's contributors prompt new reflections on key aspects of utopianism in experimental twentieth-century literature and non-fictional writing; deepen literary-historical understandings of modernism's socio-political implications; and bear out the on-going relevance of modernism's explorations of utopian thought. Utopianism, Modernism, and Literature in the Twentieth Century will appeal to anyone with an interest in how deeply and how differently modernist writers, as well as writers influenced by or resistant to modernist styles, engaged with issues of utopianism, perfectibility, and social betterment.

Envisioning Real Utopias

Author : Erik Olin Wright
Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1789601452
Total Pages : 536 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (896 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Envisioning Real Utopias by : Erik Olin Wright

Download or read book Envisioning Real Utopias written by Erik Olin Wright and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising inequality of income and power, along with recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet few are attempting this task-most analysts argue that any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations is utopian. Erik Olin Wright's major new work is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. A systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors, Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.

Dictionary of Critical Realism

Author : Mervyn Hartwig
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317420713
Total Pages : 556 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Dictionary of Critical Realism by : Mervyn Hartwig

Download or read book Dictionary of Critical Realism written by Mervyn Hartwig and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-01-30 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dictionary of Critical Realism fulfils a vital gap in the literature, Critical Realism is often criticised for being too opaque and deploying too much jargon, thereby making the concepts inaccessible for a wider audience. However, as Hartwig puts it 'Just as the tools of the various skilled trades need to be precision-engineered for specific, interrelated functions, so meta-theory requires concepts honed for specific interrelated tasks: it is impossible to think creatively at that level without them.' This Dictionary seeks to redress this problem; to throw open the important contribution of Critical Realism to a wider audience for the first time, by thoroughly explaining all the key concepts and key developments. It includes 500 entries on these themes, and has contributions from major players in field. However this text does not stop there, it goes further than simply elucidating the concepts and includes a number of essays which use the notions in important areas, thereby demonstrating the appropriate use of the concepts in action to encourage their wider use. This book will become a requisite reference tool for Critical Realist scholars and Philosophers and Social scientists alike will enjoy this vital introduction and explanatory text of the indispensable ideas contained within the dynamic and vibrant school of Critical Realism.

Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature

Author : Raphael Kabo
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 135028856X
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature by : Raphael Kabo

Download or read book Utopia Beyond Capitalism in Contemporary Literature written by Raphael Kabo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring readings of contemporary utopian poetry and fiction from authors such as Juliana Spahr, Mohsin Hamid, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lidia Yukavitch, and Cory Doctorow, this book investigates the commons - a form of organisation based on collectivity, communalism and sharing - as a type of transition between capitalist precarity and crisis and anti-capitalist futures. Each of the texts under examination was written in opposition to a particular crisis of the capitalist present - inequality, political representation, mobility, and climate change - and develops a particular mode of utopian 'commoning'. Through its examination of these writers, crises and texts, this book reaffirms the use of utopianism as a tool for generating and representing alternative futures for a world in the midst of ongoing planetary crisis.

Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies

Author : John Storey
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351782436
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (517 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies by : John Storey

Download or read book Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies written by John Storey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-25 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies, John Storey looks at the concept of utopianism from a cultural studies perspective and argues that radical utopianism can awaken the political promise of cultural studies. Between the Preface and the Postscript, there are seven chapters that explore different aspects of radical utopianism. The book begins with a definition of what radical utopianism means, with its productive combination of defamiliarization and desire. From there, it considers Thomas More’s invention of the concept of utopia with its double articulation of what is and what could be, Herbert Marcuse’s utopian rereading of Sigmund Freud’s concept of repression, Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, the Paris Commune, and the Haight-Ashbury counterculture. In the final chapter, Storey examines two versions of utopian capitalism: retro and post. Although the main focus here is on Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign and Paul Mason’s recent bestseller Postcapitalism, the chaper begins with a brief discussion of Karl Marx on capitalism. Each chapter, in a different way, argues that radical utopianism defamiliarizes the manufactured naturalness of the here and now, making it conceivable to believe that another world is possible. This book provides an ideal introduction to utopianism for students of cultural studies as well as students within a number of related disciplines such as sociology, literature, history, politics, and media studies.

The Formation of Critical Realism

Author : Roy Bhaskar
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113405064X
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (34 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Formation of Critical Realism by : Roy Bhaskar

Download or read book The Formation of Critical Realism written by Roy Bhaskar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-01-25 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series of interviews, conducted in the form of exchanges between Roy Bhaskar and Mervyn Hartwig, tells a riveting story of the formation and development of critical realism. Three intersecting and interweaving narratives unfold in the course of this unfinished story: the personal narrative of Roy Bhaskar, born of an Indian father and English mother, a child of post-war Britain and Indian partition and independence; the intellectual narrative of the emergence and growth of critical realism; and a world-historical story, itself theorized by critical realism in its discussion of the development of modernity. This book gives an invaluable account of the development of critical realism, and its consolidation as a leading philosophy of our times. It takes us through the major moments of its formation, the principal objections to and controversies within critical realism, the establishment of its institutions, and considers its limits and future development. Special features of the book include discussion of the genesis of critical realism, and the origins and nature of the so-called dialectical and spiritual turns. The informal dialogical style of The Formation of Critical Realism makes it compelling reading and an invaluable source for students of critical realism as well as all those interested in the intellectual story of our times.

The Concept of Utopia

Author : Ruth Levitas
Publisher : Syracuse University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815625131
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (251 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Concept of Utopia by : Ruth Levitas

Download or read book The Concept of Utopia written by Ruth Levitas and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Probes the contested concept of utopia, examining the different ways in which it has been used by commentators and theorists in both liberal and Marxist radiations. The works of Karl Mannheim, Georges Sorel, Ernst Bloch, William Morris, and Herbert Marcuse are studied. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia

Author : Selina Busby
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350086169
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia by : Selina Busby

Download or read book Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia written by Selina Busby and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the 2022 TaPRA David Bradby Monograph Prize Applied Theatre is a widely accepted term to describe a set of practices that encompass community, social and participatory theatre making. It is an area of performance practice that is flourishing across global contexts and communities. However, this proliferation is not unproblematic. A Pedagogy of Utopia offers a critical consideration of long-term applied and participatory theatre projects. In doing so, it provides a timely analysis of some of the concepts that inform applied theatre and outlines a new way of thinking about making theatre with differing groups of participants. The book problematizes some key concepts including safe spaces, voice, ethical practice and resistance. Selina Busby analyses applied theatre projects in India, the USA and the UK, in youth theatres, homeless shelters, prisons and with those living in informal housing settlements to consider her key question: What might a pedagogy of utopia look like? Drawing on 20-years of practice in a range of contexts, this book focuses on long-term interventions that raise troubling questions about applied theatre, cultural colonialism and power, while arguing that community or participatory theatre conversely has the potential to generate a resilient sense of optimism, or what Busby terms, a 'nebulous utopia'.

Utopianism for a Dying Planet

Author : Gregory Claeys
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691236690
Total Pages : 608 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Utopianism for a Dying Planet by : Gregory Claeys

Download or read book Utopianism for a Dying Planet written by Gregory Claeys and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the utopian tradition offers answers to today’s environmental crises In the face of Earth’s environmental breakdown, it is clear that technological innovation alone won’t save our planet. A more radical approach is required, one that involves profound changes in individual and collective behavior. Utopianism for a Dying Planet examines the ways the expansive history of utopian thought, from its origins in ancient Sparta and ideas of the Golden Age through to today's thinkers, can offer moral and imaginative guidance in the face of catastrophe. The utopian tradition, which has been critical of conspicuous consumption and luxurious indulgence, might light a path to a society that emphasizes equality, sociability, and sustainability. Gregory Claeys unfolds his argument through a wide-ranging consideration of utopian literature, social theory, and intentional communities. He defends a realist definition of utopia, focusing on ideas of sociability and belonging as central to utopian narratives. He surveys the development of these themes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before examining twentieth- and twenty-first-century debates about alternatives to consumerism. Claeys contends that the current global warming limit of 1.5C (2.7F) will result in cataclysm if there is no further reduction in the cap. In response, he offers a radical Green New Deal program, which combines ideas from the theory of sociability with proposals to withdraw from fossil fuels and cease reliance on unsustainable commodities. An urgent and comprehensive search for antidotes to our planet’s destruction, Utopianism for a Dying Planet asks for a revival of utopian ideas, not as an escape from reality, but as a powerful means of changing it.

Prefiguring Utopia

Author : Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-Smith
Publisher : Policy Press
ISBN 13 : 1529230802
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (292 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Prefiguring Utopia by : Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-Smith

Download or read book Prefiguring Utopia written by Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-Smith and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Auroville in Tamil Nadu, South India, is an internationally recognized 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 organization, 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.

Political Uses of Utopia

Author : S. D. Chrostowska
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231544316
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Political Uses of Utopia by : S. D. Chrostowska

Download or read book Political Uses of Utopia written by S. D. Chrostowska and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Post-Secularism, Realism and Utopia

Author : Jolyon Agar
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317950461
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (179 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Post-Secularism, Realism and Utopia by : Jolyon Agar

Download or read book Post-Secularism, Realism and Utopia written by Jolyon Agar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the recent rise in post-secularism in the humanities and social sciences. Post-secularism is the proposition that the secular project begun by the Enlightenment has come to an end. If we define secularism as the historical process of increasing marginalisation of the religious from contributing to debates in the public sphere and the process of public policy formation then it is in crisis. This opens up the intriguing possibility that there may be opportunities for renewed debate about the nature of our "secular age" and the role of religion in modern society.

Imagining the University

Author : Ronald Barnett
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135098433
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Imagining the University by : Ronald Barnett

Download or read book Imagining the University written by Ronald Barnett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Around the world, what it is to be a university is a matter of much debate. The range of ideas of the university in public circulation is, however, exceedingly narrow and is dominated by the idea of the entrepreneurial university. As a consequence, the debate is hopelessly impoverished. Lurking in the literature, there is a broad and even imaginative array of ideas of the university, but those ideas are seldom heard. We need, consequently, not just more ideas of the university but better ideas. Imagining the University forensically examines this situation, critically interrogating many of the current ideas of the university. Imagining the University argues for imaginative ideas that are critical, sensitive to the deep structures underlying universities and are yet optimistic, in short feasible utopias of the university. The case is pressed for one such idea, that of the ecological university. The book concludes by offering a vision of the imagining university, a university that has the capacity continually to re-imagine itself.

Utopia Ltd.

Author : Matthew Beaumont
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9047407091
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (474 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Utopia Ltd. by : Matthew Beaumont

Download or read book Utopia Ltd. written by Matthew Beaumont and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This literary-historical account of late-nineteenth century utopianism offers a fascinating rereading of the fin de siècle in terms of the political futures that were produced in England during a period of cultural upheaval, and marks an original contribution to the Marxist critique of utopian ideology.

The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literatures

Author : Peter Marks
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030886549
Total Pages : 721 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literatures by : Peter Marks

Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literatures written by Peter Marks and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 721 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literatures celebrates a literary genre already over 500 years old. Specially commissioned essays from established and emerging international scholars reflect the vibrancy of utopian vision, and its resiliency as idea, genre, and critical mode. Covering politics, environment, geography, body and mind, and social organization, the volume surveys current research and maps new areas of study. The chapters include investigations of anarchism, biopolitics, and postcolonialism and study film, art, and literature. Each essay considers central questions and key primary works, evaluates the most recent research, and outlines contemporary debates. Literatures of Africa, Australia, China, Latin America, and the Middle East are discussed in this global, cross-disciplinary, and comprehensive volume.

Cruising Utopia

Author : José Esteban Muñoz
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 0814796001
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (147 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Cruising Utopia by : José Esteban Muñoz

Download or read book Cruising Utopia written by José Esteban Muñoz and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The LGBT agenda for too long has been dominated by pragmatic issues like same-sex marriage and gays in the military. It has been stifled by this myopic focus on the present, which is short-sighted and assimilationist. Cruising Utopia seeks to break the present stagnancy by cruising ahead. Drawing on the work of Ernst Bloch, José Esteban Muñoz recalls the queer past for guidance in presaging its future. He considers the work of seminal artists and writers such as Andy Warhol, LeRoi Jones, Frank O’Hara, Ray Johnson, Fred Herko, Samuel Delany, and Elizabeth Bishop, alongside contemporary performance and visual artists like Dynasty Handbag, My Barbarian, Luke Dowd, Tony Just, and Kevin McCarty in order to decipher the anticipatory illumination of art and its uncanny ability to open windows to the future. In a startling repudiation of what the LGBT movement has held dear, Muñoz contends that queerness is instead a futurity bound phenomenon, a "not yet here" that critically engages pragmatic presentism. Part manifesto, part love-letter to the past and the future, Cruising Utopia argues that the here and now are not enough and issues an urgent call for the revivification of the queer political imagination.