Heartland Utopias

Envisioning Real Utopias

A BOOK on utopias by a Marxist sociologist seems promising, perhaps even courageous. In Envisioning Real Utopias, Erik Olin Wright seeks to counter widespread cynicism about radical social transformation. To do this he offers what he calls “real utopias,” which might appear a contradiction or oxymoron. For Wright, however, utopias are not fantasies, or not only fantasies. In the current period ...

Scientific Utopias

Fruit heartland threatened

It has only recently been discovered that the likely origin of some of the world's most important fruit crops, such as apples, apricots and walnuts, lie in a small region of forests in central Asia. The region is home to more than 300 wild fruit and nut species but this unique genetic resource is under major threat, according to a new report which estimated that 90 per cent of this woodland has...

Essays from Its Heartland

Guidelines for Envisioning Real Utopias

This essay explores five general guidelines for discussions of democratic egalitarian alternatives to existing institutions in contemporary capitalist societies: (1) Evaluate alternatives in terms of three criteria: desirability, viability, achievability. (2) Do not let the problem of achievability dictate the discussion of viability. (3) Clarify the problem of winners and losers in structural ...