Or, to give it its full name, A Provocation to Practice Utopianism in the Face of Climate Crisis.
The starting point for this short article was my frustration with apocalyptic narratives around climate change. I wanted to ask how stories can explore our relationship with others, both human and non-human, and the conditions in which we might thrive, rather than portraying a seemingly inevitable demise.
Utopian Acts
The first iteration of this piece was a presentation I gave entitled ‘What does an environmental utopianism look like?’ at Utopian Acts 2018 . This event was a “one day festival exploring utopianism in activism, art and academia” (to quote the programme) at Birkbeck, University of London. Utopian Acts, though originally a one-day happening, went on to become a kind of network of those involved both initially and since, led by organisers Katie Stone and Raphael Kabo. Other ‘acts’ have included a guest-edited issue of the Studies in Arts and Humanities Journal, in which my article appeared, the founding of a library of utopian texts and a collectively compiled Decolonising Utopia Resource List.
You can read my article here or browse the full issue below.
