Utopia as akairological rupture

Dhillon, S. (2023) Utopia as akairological rupture. The European Legacy. pp. 1-18. ISSN 1470-1316

Text Utopia as Akairological Rupture AM.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 27 October 2024. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (191kB)

Abstract

This article argues for a reconceptualization of utopia as akairological rupture. Its central thesis disputes the conventional reading of utopia as a teleological goal to be realized by a social collective. Thus rather than viewing the potentiality of utopia as a prescribed ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants live in harmony, I argue that it should be seen as an akairological rupture, manifested through a determinately negative, individual, approach. In this reading, utopia is primarily a social condition within culture, and perennially opposed to any ideal telos. This temporal and qualitative reconceptualization of utopia as disruptive is anathema to the positive reading that sees it as feasible through social reform and rational discourse. This reconceptualization argues for the importance of developing a reading of utopia that can transcend any reified, fixed conception that seeks to domesticate it in the service of a contingent political aspiration, however noble and humanitarian it may appear to be. Herein lies its critical potentiality under neoliberal conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2023 Taylor and Francis. This is an author accepted manuscript of a paper subsequently published in The European Legacy. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Keywords:	Utopia, chronos, kairos, aión
Divisions:	School of Social Science
Depositing User:	Sunny Dhillon
Date Deposited:	12 Jul 2023 16:01
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2023 16:01
URI:	https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/1024

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