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Title:
Utopia as method : the imaginary reconstruction of society / Ruth Levitas, University of Bristol, UK.
Author:
Levitas, Ruth, 1949-
Publication Information:
Houndmills : Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Call Number:
H61 .L4768 2013
Abstract:
"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 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." -- Publisher's description.
Electronic Access:
Notice et cote du catalogue de la Bibliothèque nationale de France http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb43675683r
ISBN:
9780230231962

9780230231979
Physical Description:
xviii, 268 pages ; 23 cm.
General Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-260) and index.
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.
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