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Political Uses of Utopia: New Marxist, Anarchist, and Radical Democratic Perspectives
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Publisher
Columbia University Press
Published
Mar 21, 2017
ISBN-13
9780231179584

Political Uses of Utopia: New Marxist, Anarchist, and Radical Democratic Perspectives

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780231179584 Columbia University Press

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.

Product details

BrandColumbia University Press
Pub dateMar 21, 2017
ISBN-100231179588
ISBN-139780231179584
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions9.1 × 1 × 6.1 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-10-18 07:37
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