Includes bibliographical references (pages 517-559) and index.
Contents:
Afterword: Covid-19 and Sociability. Part I Towards a Theory of Utopian Sociability -- 1 Redefining Utopianism for a Post-consumer Society -- 2 The Mythical Background: Remembering Original Equality -- 3 Theories of Realised Utopianism -- Part II Utopian Sociability in Fiction and Practice -- 4 The Varieties of Utopian Practice -- 5 Luxury, Sociability, and Progress in Literary Projections of Utopia: from Thomas More to the Eighteenth Century -- 6 The Triumph of Unsocial Sociability? Luxury in the Eighteenth Century -- Part III Luxury and Sociability in Later Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Utopianism -- 7 The Later Eighteenth Century and the French Revolution -- 8 Simplicity and Sociability in Nineteenth-Century Utopianism -- Part IV Modern Consumerism and Its Opponents -- 9 Twentieth-Century Consumerism and the Utopian Response -- 10 Counterculture and Consumerism: The 1960s -- 11 Life after Consumerism: Utopianism in the Age of Sufficiency -- Conclusion: The Great Change: Creating Enhanced Simplicity -- Afterword: Covid-19 and Sociability.
Summary:
"How the utopian tradition offers answers to today's environmental crises. In the face of Earth's environmental breakdown, it is clear that technological innovation alone won't save our planet. A more radical approach is required, one that involves profound changes in individual and collective behavior. Utopianism for a Dying Planet examines the ways the expansive history of utopian thought, from its origins in ancient Sparta and ideas of the Golden Age through to today's thinkers, can offer moral and imaginative guidance in the face of catastrophe. The utopian tradition, which has been critical of conspicuous consumption and luxurious indulgence, might light a path to a society that emphasizes equality, sociability, and sustainability. Gregory Claeys unfolds his argument through a wide-ranging consideration of utopian literature, social theory, and intentional communities. He defends a realist definition of utopia, focusing on ideas of sociability and belonging as central to utopian narratives. He surveys the development of these themes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before examining the twentieth- and twenty-first-centuries debates about alternatives to consumerism. Claeys contends that the current global warming limit of 1.5°C (2.7°F) will result in cataclysm if there is no further reduction in the cap. In response, he offers a radical Green New Deal program which combines ideas from the theory of sociability with proposals to withdraw from fossil fuels and cease reliance on unsustainable commodities. An urgent and comprehensive search for antidotes to our planet's destruction, Utopianism for a Dying Planet asks for a revival of utopian ideas, not as an escape from reality, but as a powerful means of changing it"--Dust jacket flap.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.