Utopian Visions: Emancipatory Possibilities

Abstract

Abstract utopians dream of far away El Dorado, the land of milk and honey, Oz, fairy tale kingdoms… (Kellner & O'Hara, 1976, p. 29)I began to think, how do we systematically cultivate the ability to do what Bloch called dreaming forward, and what value does it have, to be compelled to imagine a different world? What are its characteristics? This is not the same as a political exercise in which we are always bound by someone else's profane choices, and we just select among them the least bad options. What do we want? Do we just want that when you go to the doctor, you don't have to pay? Is that it? Is that gonna do it? (Gilroy, in Shelby & Gilroy, 2008, p. 133)