Utopia as method : the imaginary reconstruction of society / Ruth Levitas, University of Bristol, UK.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levitas, Ruth, 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Philosophy.

Social sciences.

Utopias--Political aspects.

Utopias.

Physical Description:

xviii, 268 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

In this major new work by one of the leading writers on Utopian Studies, Ruth Levitas argues that a prospective future of ecological and economic crises poses a challenge to the utopian imaginary, to conceive a better world, and alternative future. Utopia as Method does not construe utopia as a goal or blueprint, but as a holistic, reflexive method for developing what those possible futures might be. It begins by treating utopia as the quest for grace, through a hermeneutics that recovers the utopian meaning in our culture, explored through colour and music. Moving from the existential to the social, it draws on H. G. Wells's claim that the creation of utopias is the distinctive and proper method of sociology, and on the tentative reappearance of utopia in contemporary social theory. It proposes a constructive method, the Imaginary Reconstitution of Society. This fusion of explicitly normative social theory and analytic critique rehabilitates utopia as an integral part of sociology, and offers a means of collective engagement in shaping a better tomorrow. Book jacket.

Contents:

Preface and acknowledgements

Introduction

From terror to grace

Riff on blue

Echoes of elsewhere

Between sociology and utopia

Utopia denied

Utopia revised

The return of the repressed

Utopia as archaeology

Utopia as ontology

Utopia as architecture

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230231962

0230231969

9780230231979

0230231977

OCLC:

828486386