Utopias

Introduction

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. While More’s work is complex, the term ‘utopia’ has come to mean an imagined ideal society that is ultimately unattainable. Yet that hasn’t stopped many people after More from trying to imagine what an ideal society might look like. The way that utopian thinking is now dismissed may be problematic - have we given up on the idea of a future society that is fundamentally different from the present? Are we even capable of the kind of infrastructural changes that might lead to economic growth and security? This strand debates and challenges our relationship with the future.

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