Utopia: Social Theory and the Future PDF
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Utopia: Social theory and the FUtUre classical and contemporary Social theory Series editor: Stjepan G. Mestrovic, texas a&M University, USa classical and contemporary Social theory publishes rigorous scholarly work that re-discovers the relevance of social theory for contemporary times, demonstrating the enduring importance of theory for modern social issues. the series covers social theory in a broad sense, inviting contributions on both ‘classical’ and modern theory, thus encompassing sociology, without being confined to a single discipline. as such, work from across the social sciences is welcome, provided that volumes address the social context of particular issues, subjects, or figures and offer new understandings of social reality and the contribution of a theorist or school to our understanding of it. The series considers significant new appraisals of established thinkers or schools, comparative works or contributions that discuss a particular social issue or phenomenon in relation to the work of specific theorists or theoretical approaches. contributions are welcome that assess broad strands of thought within certain schools or across the work of a number of thinkers, but always with an eye toward contributing to contemporary understandings of social issues and contexts. Also in the series Fallgirls: Gender and the Framing of torture at abu Ghraib Ryan Ashley Caldwell iSBn 978-1-4094-2969-2 Utopia: Social theory and the Future Edited by Michael hviid JacoBSen Aalborg University, Denmark Keith teSter University of Hull, UK © Michael hviid Jacobsen and Keith tester 2012 all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Michael hviid Jacobsen and Keith tester have asserted their right under the copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. published by ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing company Wey court east Suite 420 Union road 101 cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7pt vt 05401-4405 england USa www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Utopia : social theory and the future. -- (classical and contemporary social theory) 1. Utopias. 2. Social sciences--philosophy. i. Series ii. Jacobsen, Michael hviid, 1971- iii. tester, Keith, 1960- 301-dc23 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Utopia : social theory and the future / [edited] by Michael hviid Jacobsen and Keith tester. p. cm. -- (classical and contemporary social theory) includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn 978-1-4094-0699-0 (hbk) -- iSBn 978-1-4094-0700-3 (ebk) 1. Utopias. 2. Utopian socialism. 3. Sociology. i. Jacobsen, Michael hviid, 1971- ii. tester, Keith, 1960- hX806.U79165 2012 335'.02--dc23 2012016620 iSBn 9781409406990 (hbk) iSBn 9781409407003 (ebk) iSBn 9781409484820 (epub) II printed and bound in Great Britain by the MpG Books Group, UK. Contents List of Contributors vii Introduction: Utopia as a Topic for Social Theory 1 Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester Part I theoretIcal MusIngs 1 Utopia and the End of History 7 Henk de Berg 2 What Is Concrete about Ernst Bloch’s ‘Concrete Utopia’? 33 Peter Thompson 3 Dreams, Visions and Utopias – Romantic and Realist Revolutionaries and the Idyllic 47 Arpad Szakolczai 4 Liquid Modern ‘Utopia’ – Zygmunt Bauman on the Transformation of Utopia 69 Michael Hviid Jacobsen 5 Houellebecq’s Dystopia – A Case of the Elective Affinity between Sociology and Literature 97 Anders Petersen and Michael Hviid Jacobsen Part II theorIes In MotIon 6 Utopia and Criminology 123 Peter Young 7 Utopianism, Dystopianism and Ecological Thought 141 Kate Rigby 8 Social Movements as Utopian Practice 161 Andrew Jamison vi Utopia: Social Theory and the Future 9 Virtual Utopias and Dystopias – The Cultural Imaginary of the Internet 179 Majid Yar 10 Utopias of Mobilities 197 Ole B. Jensen and Malene Freudendal-Pedersen Index 219 List of Contributors Henk de Berg is Professor of German at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. His most recent books are Freud’s Theory and Its Use in Literary and Cultural Studies (2003), which received a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award and has been translated into three European languages as well as Chinese, and Das Ende der Geschichte und der bürgerliche Rechtsstaat, a comparative study of Hegel, Kojève and Fukuyama (2007). His Modern German Thought from Kant to Habermas: An Annotated German-Language Reader is forthcoming from Camden House. Malene Freudendal-Pedersen is Assistant Professor at the Department of Environ- mental, Social and Spatial Change at Roskilde University, Denmark. She is the author of the book Mobility in Daily Life – Between Freedom and Unfreedom (2009). Michael Hviid Jacobsen is Professor of Sociology and Head of School of Sociology and Social Work at Aalborg University, Denmark. His most recent edited books in English include: Public Sociology (2008), The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman (2008), Encountering the Everyday (2009), The Contemporary Goffman (2010), An Introduction to Sociology: Scandinavian Sensibilities (2012) and The Social Thought of Erving Goffman (2013). Andrew Jamison is Professor of Technology, Environment and Society at the Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. He has published widely in the fields of science and technology policy, social movements and environmental politics and is the author, with Ron Eyerman, of Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach (1991), Seeds of the Sixties (1995) and Music and Social Movements (1998), and The Making of Green Knowledge: Environmental Politics and Cultural Transformation (2001), Hubris and Hybrids: A Cultural History of Science and Technology (2005), with Mikael Hård, and A Hybrid Imagination: Science and Technology in Cultural Perspective (2011), with Steen Hyldgaard Christensen and Lars Botin. Ole B. Jensen is Professor of Urban Theory at the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark. His research interest is urban theory and mobilities research. He is the co-author of Making European Space: Mobility, Power and Territorial Identity (2004) and has published in a range of journals such as Mobilities, European Planning Studies, Space and Culture, and Urban Studies. viii Utopia: Social Theory and the Future Anders Petersen is Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark, and President of the Danish Sociological Association. His most recent publications in English include: “Authentic Self-Realisation and Depression” (2011) and “The Demand for Flexibility as a Process of Disenfranchisement” (2011). Kate Rigby is Associate Professor in Comparative Literature at Monash University, Australia, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her research ranges across German Studies, European philosophy, literature and religion, and culture and ecology, and her publications include: Out of the Shadows: Contemporary German Feminism (1996), Transgressions of the Feminine: Tragedy, Enlightenment and the Figure of Woman in Classical German Drama (1996), Topographies of the Sacred: The Poetics of Place in European Romanticism (2004) and Ecocritical Theory: New European Approaches (2011). She is founding co-editor of the ecological humanities journal, Philosophy Activism Nature, and was the founding President of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (Australia–New Zealand). Arpad Szakolczai is Professor of Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland. His books include: Max Weber and Michel Foucault: Parallel Life-Works (1998), Reflexive Historical Sociology (2000), The Genesis of Modernity (2003) and Sociology, Religion and Grace: A Quest for the Renaissance (2007). He is currently finishing a book manuscript entitled Comedy and the Public Sphere, which intends to go beyond Jürgen Habermas’s rationalistic account by demonstrating the central importance of the re-birth of comedy, from the late Renaissance onwards, in forming the modern democratic public ‘arena’. Keith Tester is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hull, United Kingdom, and Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South-Korea. He is also Visiting Professor at the School of Social Policy and Sociology, University of Leeds. He has published widely on the sociology of moral life and is recognized as one of the leading interpreters of the work of Zygmunt Bauman. His books include: Media, Culture and Morality (1994), Moral Culture (1997), Compassion, Morality and the Media (2001), Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman (2001), The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman (2004), and Humanitarianism and Modern Culture (2010). Peter Thompson is Reader in German at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. He has published widely on Ernst Bloch, Ostalgie, the history of the GDR and German thought and is co-editor with Slavoj Žižek of The Privatization of Hope (2012). Majid Yar is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hull, United Kingdom. His research interests include crime and deviance, media/new media, social theory and sexual culture. His publications include: Cybercrime and Society (2006), List of Contributors ix Key Concepts in Criminology (2008), The Handbook on Internet Crime (2009), Community and Recognition (2009), and The Politics of Misrecognition (2011). Peter Young is Professor of Criminology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Hull, United Kingdom. He worked also at the Centre for Law and Society, University of Edinburgh, of which he was a founding member and then Director; he was also Head of the School of Law. He has served on the editorial boards of most of the main UK-based journals in criminology. His books include: The Power to Punish (1983), Crime and Criminal Justice in Scotland (1997) and Crime in Ireland (2002). He has also published on the development of criminological theory, crime rates and comparative criminal justice and on the social understanding of harm, including evil. He has a long-term interest in the processes of judgment.
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