Globalization and Utopia: Critical Essays - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230203590 ISBN 13: 9780230203594

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Synopsis

Is it possible to create a different and better world? This innovative volume explores debates about the demise of utopia at the end of the twentieth century, and examines the potential renewal of political imagination and the utopian impulse today. The discussion is set in an enlarged and enriched frame that situates utopianism in relation to the complexities and challenges of globalization. Critically investigating many of the unacknowledged assumptions about the inevitability of our current social and political experiences, and this collection considers questions of hope and transformation associated with the utopian desire for social change. It explores the range of political responses that utopian actors have available in light of globalization - ranging from 'everyday life' to global politics, from anti-consumerism to cyber-utopianism. This book makes a timely contribution to considering the challenge of imagining a different and better way of living in a global age.

About this title

Product Description:

Globalization and Utopia Taking aim at the belief in utopia's demise, this collection of original essays offers a new look at the vibrant renewal of utopianism emerging in response to the challenges of globalization. It consider questions of hope and transformation associated with the utopian desire for social change. Full description

Review:

"An excellent collection by truly serious authors on an subject hitherto ignored." - Charles Lemert, Professor of Sociology, Wesleyan University, USA 
 
"This collection of essays places the concept of utopia firmly at the centre of a critical understanding of the idea and process of globalization. More, it shows how the idea of utopia is central to critical social theory. It not only deserves, but needs, to be widely read." - Ruth Levitas, Professor of Sociology, Bristol University, UK
 
"The imaginative essays compiled in this bold study attest to the vitality of critical utopianism in the global age. Wide-ranging yet admirably focused, this collection makes an important contribution to the new transdisciplinary field of global studies." - Manfred Steger, Professor of Global Studies and Director of Globalism Research Centre Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

'This is undoubtedly a rigorous and thought-provoking collection of essays which should be essential reading for those wishing to engage critically with the concept of globalization.' - Political Studies Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0230203590
• ISBN 13: 9780230203594
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 286
• Editor: Hayden P., El-Ojeili C.