The Real Utopias Project: Difference between revisions
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In practical terms, the Real Utopias Project is built around a series of workshop conferences sponsored by the A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin. The general format of these conferences consists of selecting a provocative manuscript that lays out the basic outlines of a radical institutional proposal and then inviting 15-20 scholars to write essays that in one way or another address this document. These essays have ranged from short, point-by-point critiques of specific arguments to longer papers developing one or more of the themes of the focal manuscript. The essays are then circulated to all participants in the conference well in advance of the gathering so that the discussions of each paper at the conference are informed by the arguments raised by the entire set. After the workshop is over, participants have an opportunity to revise their essays before they appear as a collection in the Real Utopias Project series published by Verso. All royalties from the The Real Utopia Project books go into a fund to support future conferences and books. | In practical terms, the Real Utopias Project is built around a series of workshop conferences sponsored by the A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin. The general format of these conferences consists of selecting a provocative manuscript that lays out the basic outlines of a radical institutional proposal and then inviting 15-20 scholars to write essays that in one way or another address this document. These essays have ranged from short, point-by-point critiques of specific arguments to longer papers developing one or more of the themes of the focal manuscript. The essays are then circulated to all participants in the conference well in advance of the gathering so that the discussions of each paper at the conference are informed by the arguments raised by the entire set. After the workshop is over, participants have an opportunity to revise their essays before they appear as a collection in the Real Utopias Project series published by Verso. All royalties from the The Real Utopia Project books go into a fund to support future conferences and books. | ||
As of 2010, eight conferences have been organized on this format: | '''As of 2010, eight conferences have been organized on this format:''' | ||
[[1. Basic Income Grants (1991)]] | [[1. Basic Income Grants (1991)]] | ||
Revision as of 21:38, 12 May 2010
"Real Utopia" seems like a contradiction in terms. Utopias are fantasies, morally inspired designs for social life unconstrained by realistic considerations of human psychology and social feasibility. Realists eschew such fantasies. What is needed are hard-nosed proposals for pragmatically improving our institutions. Instead of indulging in utopian dreams we must accommodate to practical realities.
The Real Utopia Project embraces this tension between dreams and practice. It is founded on the belief that what is pragmatically possible is not fixed independently of our imaginations, but is itself shaped by our visions. We need "real utopias": utopian ideals that are grounded in the real potentials of humanity, utopian destinations that have accessible waystations, utopian designs of institutions that can inform our practical tasks of muddling through in a world of imperfect conditions for social change.
The Real Utopias Project is an attempt at countering this cynicism by sustaining and deepening serious discussion of radical alternatives to existing institutions. The objective is to focus on specific proposals for the fundamental redesign of basic social institutions rather than on either general, abstract formulations of grand designs, or on small reforms of existing practices.
In practical terms, the Real Utopias Project is built around a series of workshop conferences sponsored by the A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin. The general format of these conferences consists of selecting a provocative manuscript that lays out the basic outlines of a radical institutional proposal and then inviting 15-20 scholars to write essays that in one way or another address this document. These essays have ranged from short, point-by-point critiques of specific arguments to longer papers developing one or more of the themes of the focal manuscript. The essays are then circulated to all participants in the conference well in advance of the gathering so that the discussions of each paper at the conference are informed by the arguments raised by the entire set. After the workshop is over, participants have an opportunity to revise their essays before they appear as a collection in the Real Utopias Project series published by Verso. All royalties from the The Real Utopia Project books go into a fund to support future conferences and books.
As of 2010, eight conferences have been organized on this format:
2. Secondary Associations and Democratic Governance (1992)
3. A model for Market Socialism (1994)
4. Efficient Redistribution in Advanced Capitalism (1995)
6. Rethinking Redistribution (2003)
