No Other Planet: Utopian Visions for a Climate-Changed World (original) (raw)

Rescuing Utopianism in a Climate-Changed World

Los Angeles Review of Books, 2022

• By Mathias aler DESPITE EFFORTS BY Greta unberg and the "Fridays for Future" movement, an increasing number of young adults are terri ed of a future under existential threat from ecological collapse, according to recent studies on the subject. For many, the game seems already lost, a sentiment fueled in part by the extreme pessimism of people like Roy Scranton, who tell us to "learn how to die in the Anthropocene." eir call to give up hope may, paradoxically, be tethered to a residual form of hope, but the fact is that it encourages fatalism, and thus passivity.

Images of the Present and Possible: Analyzing the Climate Movement Through Its Utopias

Sociological Research Online, 2024

The article analyzes utopian thinking within the current climate movement, with a particular focus on the Finnish movement, and develops analysis of contemporary society through utopias. Empirically, it is based on material collected in the context of a protest week called 'Utopia rebellion', in Helsinki in 2022. We use material such as statements, blog posts, and social media content produced by climate activists, as they aimed to form an idea of utopian society beyond their demands on climate policy. We argue that in order to understand any utopian vision properly, one needs to understand not only how it conceptualizes the ideal society, but also how it (implicitly) interprets the nature and problems of the existing one, and the function of utopias. From this starting point, we develop an analysis of the movement by looking at its utopias, conceptions of the present, and uses of utopias. In the image of the movement formed this way, the key components emerging from the analyses are related to redefinitions of work, reconnecting with one's community, and the possibilities of identities to flourish.

Utopia, Breakdown, Repair: Failure and Success in Social Dreaming (New Political Science)

New Political Science, 2023

A common charge against utopianism is that any attempt to create blueprints for a better future disregards a basic fact: humans' proclivity for failure. In response, defenders of social dreaming have argued that failure can become generative, once we abandon the perfectionism that ostensibly inheres in utopian visions. Building on this revaluation, the paper applies a crucial lesson from engineering and design studies-that often artificial failure modes are required to enhance the safety of tools and machines. To flesh out this point, I turn to utopian fiction and discuss Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital-trilogy, which rejects techno-optimism about our climate-changed world, yet hails the transformative potential of an anti-capitalist scientific community. Ultimately, the paper claims that, if we cannot have success in addressing the climate emergency without committing serious mistakes, then one (but clearly not the only) path forward is to imaginatively prefigure the faultlines along which ecomodernist dreams for a "good Anthropocene" might rupture.

Utopian and dystopian thought in climate change science and policy

Futures, 2009

Climate change policies are increasingly seen as integral to sustainable development policies. This article examines how visions of future society have been employed in climate science and multilateral negotiations. Using elements of utopian and dystopian thought, we have categorized UNFCCC documents, IPCC assessments, and special reports and peer-reviewed climate policy articles. Our results indicate that utopian thinking surfaces with reference to sustainable development and emissions scenarios. Such visions of future society fall into three categories: projections, dystopian thought, and utopian thought. Dystopian thought is mainly evident in the rhetoric of various actors, and is used to spur action or inaction, to avoid either economic catastrophe by acting too fast or ecological catastrophe by not acting fast enough. Utopian elements in climate change science and policy refer to decoupling greenhouse gases and economic growth, evenly distributing the benefits of economic globalization, and smoothing technological development. The present piecemeal invocation of sustainable development concepts in climate science and policy emphasizes the difficulties of integrating environmental, social, and economic concerns. The article concludes that utopian thinking regarding sustainable development could result in more integrated and holistic visions of future society in climate science and policy.

Narratives of Hope: Imagination and Alternative Futures in Climate Change Literature

Transcience Journal, 2022

This paper discusses the modes and applicability of ‘hope’ in narratives on climate change, as found in five ecological pop-science texts written in the years between 2007 to 2021. It seeks to question and unearth the standard narratives about the climate crisis as dominant in Western spaces of science communication. Further, it unpacks the concept of hope and its role and capacity to contribute to a future imaginary that deviates from the standard narratives and finally seeks to uncover what alternative narratives could look like based on the analyzed texts. The analysis is based on narratology and affective theory which presents an ‘experiential critique’ of the subject on hope, of which the paper provides a thorough conceptual framework. The analysis finds that hope is a concept that is intimately entangled with imaginations of the future; however, hope does not have a universal understanding. Thus, ‘hope’ can on the one hand be “what we need if we are to put it right” (Pattison 2016), and on the other hand, a principle pandering to structures and demands of ‘modernity’ which has been complicit in advancing the climate crisis. I propose a concept of ecological hope, which emerges out of an affective experience of loss and crisis. In a first step, the research will dive into background on climate change narratives, the context in which they emerge and their relationship with hope and crisis. It will also look at the importance of imagination and the necessity of cultivating it. It finally analyzes the aforementioned texts on their different imaginings of the future, what narratives matter to this future, their outlining of hope and their suggestions for transformation.

Utopianism in the Age of Capitalocene

NGP Yearbook 2020, 2021

This article explores the social and political imagination of 'the Anthropocene' and the utopian counter-images that can be derived from it. From the utopian studies perspective, I argue that the Anthropocene cannot provide sufficient societal alternatives for the current ecological predicament. This is due to the fact that the concept of Anthropocene relies too heavily on the image of abstract humanity to be able to offer real societal alternatives. It cannot name the social system we live in and, therefore, it cannot fundamentally challenge existing social arrangements. Based on utopian social theory, I conceptualize utopia as a counter-image of the present motivated by a desire for better being. The contents and the politically transformative potentials of utopian counter-images depend on the conceptualization of the present itself. I contrast the utopian potentials of 'the Anthropocene' with that of 'the Capitalocene' which is more apt in outlining the social conditions of the present. Thus, the Capitalocene as a concept opens up more radical possibilities for imagining societal alternatives by conceptualizing the present socially.