Description: The original essays contributed by leading thinkers aim to revitalize utopian thinking and apply it to contemporary national and international politics.
Brief description: Patricia Vieira is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, in the Comparative Literature Program, and in the Film and Media Studies Program of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
Review Quotes: Democratically open to contestation and different in orientation, the essays in this thought-provoking book share a commitment to utopian thought and practice as a counterforce to contemporary accommodation with an unjust order - an order where a concerted attack on the putative "privileges" of teachers may be cynically conjoined with a defense of outlandish executive bonuses and salaries as well as a costly bailout of financial institutions and high-level "inside-jobbers" responsible for the near collapse of the socio-economic system. The editors are acutely aware of the ways utopian incentives have been co-opted by the status quo in advertising as in politics where there is a romantic idealization of "free-market" ideology and "yes we can" becomes a vapid euphemism for more of the same. Yet they are also alert to the false apocalyptic appeal of blank utopias that make quasi-transcendental gestures to an unimaginable future that may be little more than a placebo for disempowerment and despair. They provide a framework for practical yet radical utopian initiatives that acknowledge inevitable existential risks yet offer what might be called possibilities of situational transcendence of existing institutions, practices, and policies. At the same time they provide a frame of reference for critically reading the ambitious essays in this collection and helping to renew options for the political imagination. --Dominick LaCapra, Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies Cornell University