Analyzing Contemporary Society Through Lived Utopia

Prefiguration and Change
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5292-5231-6
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

What if utopia wasn't a distant dream, but already unfolding around us?

Focusing on South Africa, this compelling book rethinks utopia not as a fictional un-reachable future, but as a lived practice—emerging in social movements and intentional communities.

Rejecting capitalism, it explores how people create alternative ways of living social orders or economies, imagining and organising the world. Blending decolonial sociology, political sociology, utopian studies and real-world experiences, the book offers a fresh and original approach to understanding social transformation in times of crisis.

A powerful read for scholars, students and activists interested in resistance and hope for alternative futures.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Daniel, Antje

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Postkoloniale Geschichte, Nationale Befreiung und Unabhängigkeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction

2. (Lived) Utopia in the Context of Academic Debates

3. African Utopias from the Perspective of Decolonial Sociology

4. Lived Utopias: Criticism and Collective Imaginaries of a Good Life

5. Lived Utopias and Their Aspiration to a Good Life

6. Inside Lived Utopias: Biographical Testimonies and Intersectional Configuration

7. Lived Utopias, Resonances, Change

8. Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Daniel, Antje
Antje Daniel is a senior scholar in the political and environment sociology, comparative social analysis, gender and intersectionality as well as future and utopia at the Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna.