Globalization and Utopia: Critical Essays

Taking aim at the belief in utopia's demise, this collection of original essays offers a new look at the vibrant renewal of utopianism emerging in response to the challenges of globalization. It consider questions of hope and transformation associated with the utopian desire for social change.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Reflections on the Demise and Renewal of Utopia in a Global Age;  P.Hayden  & C.el-Ojeili PART I: GLOBALIZATION AND UTOPIANISM: THEORETICAL CONNECTIONS Placing Utopia: Some Classical Images;  P.Beilharz  & C.Ellem 'Globalization' as Collective Representation: The New Dream of a Cosmopolitan Civil Sphere;  J.C.Alexander Two Post-Marxisms: Beyond Post-Socialism?;  C.el-Ojeili Globalization, Reflexive Utopianism, and the Cosmopolitan Social Imaginary;  P.Hayden After Utopia: Notes on an Ethics of Newness;  L.Gandhi Postsecularism: A New Global Debate;  G.McLennan PART II: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON UTOPIAN VISIONS IN A GLOBAL AGE After 1989: Globalization, Normalization and Utopia;  L.Ray Made in America: The Unsustainable All-Consuming Global Free-Market 'Utopia';   B.Smart Islamutopia, (Post)Modernity and the Multitude;  A.Adib-Moghaddam Utopias Without Transcendence? Post-Left Anarchy, Immediacy and Utopian Energy;  A.Robinson  & S.Tormey Libertarian Cyber-Utopianism and Global Digital Networks;  L.Dahlberg (Con)Temporary Utopian Spaces;  G.Curran Glocalization and the New Local Transnationalisms: Real Utopias in Liminal Spaces;  R.Munck The Grandchildren of Marx and Coca-Cola: Lefebvre, Utopia and the 'Recuperation' of Everyday Life;  M.Gardiner Concluding Reflections;  P.Hayden  & C.el-Ojeili Bibliography

About the Author :
ARSHIN ADIB-MOGHADDAM teaches comparative politics and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK JEFFREY C. ALEXANDER is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University, USA PETER BEILHARZ is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, Australia GIOREL CURRAN is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Policy and Researcher in the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia LINCOLN DAHLBERG teaches in the School of Journalism and Communication at The University of Queensland, Australia CHRISTINE ELLEM is a PhD candidate in Sociology at La Trobe University, Australia LEELA GANDHI is Professor of English at the University of Chicago, USA MICHAEL GARDINER is Professor in Sociology at The University of Western Ontario, Canada GREGOR MCLENNAN is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK RONALDO MUNCK is currently part of Dublin City University's 'matrix model management' in charge of internationalisation and social development (www.dcu.ie/themes), Ireland LARRY RAY is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, UK ANDREW ROBINSON is an activist and Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice in the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, UK BARRY SMART is Professor of Sociologyat the University of Portsmouth, UK SIMON TORMEY is Professor of Politics and Critical Theory, founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, and Head of the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, UK

Review :
"An excellent collection by truly serious authors on an subject hitherto ignored." - Charles Lemert, Professor of Sociology, Wesleyan University, USA "This collection of essays places the concept of utopia firmly at the centre of a critical understanding of the idea and process of globalization. More, it shows how the idea of utopia is central to critical social theory. It not only deserves, but needs, to be widely read." - Ruth Levitas, Professor of Sociology, Bristol University, UK "The imaginative essays compiled in this bold study attest to the vitality of critical utopianism in the global age. Wide-ranging yet admirably focused, this collection makes an important contribution to the new transdisciplinary field of global studies." - Manfred Steger, Professor of Global Studies and Director of Globalism Research Centre Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia 'This is undoubtedly a rigorous and thought-provoking collection of essays which should be essential reading for those wishing to engage critically with the concept of globalization.' - Political Studies Review