A controversial new city project in northern California has echoes of past utopian plans – but idealism and commercial reality have always been uneasy partners.
A stuffed toy at the site of collapsed buildings after the earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, 17 February 2023.
Martin Divisek/EPA
If we all collect and understand scientific data as citizens, we’ll be a step closer to a society able to make better collaborative decisions.
The Epcot theme park that was eventually built diverged from Walt Disney’s plans for his ‘community of tomorrow.’
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Can everyday women expect men to dramatically revise their sexist attitudes like the men surrounding the chess whiz in ‘The Queen’s Gambit’? The MeToo utopia answers: Why shouldn’t they?
The Maria Fire billows above Santa Paula, California on Oct. 31.
AP/Noah Berger
‘California is America fast-forward,’ writes one scholar. Does that mean that the dystopian infernos that have consumed parts of the state are simply a picture of what awaits the rest of America?
Our relationship with the natural world is humanity’s defining challenge. Inspired by ecotopian novels, communities and movements across the world are working to meet it.
For utopian cities to succeed, they should offer technological solutions to urban challenges.
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As cities aspire to be smarter, technologies are only part of the answer. No utopia on the horizon but we need hostistic answers more than ever before.
Erik Olin Wright, 1947-2019.
Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung
The late sociologist looked at existing ‘utopias’ that could herald a world after capitalism.
‘No labels: Portrait of a Child’ by Sharon McCutcheon. U.S. President Trump has considered launching an attack on transgender rights. We must fight against this discrimination but it is time to let go of the idea of a genderless world.
Sharon McCutcheon / Unsplash
Now that the U.S. government is threatening to define sex as either male or female, we need to fight more than ever for trans rights. But let’s give up the utopian ideal of a label-free future.
The use of big data at work could promote well-being – but only in very specific conditions.
ISIS has been using fantastical propaganda on social media that describes the Islamic State as a land that is full of happiness to recruit supporters.
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ISIS may have lost most of their territory, but it’s important to be aware that ISIS can still utilise the Internet and social media to recruit people and to spread their fantastical propaganda.
Politics Podcast: Rob Sitch on Utopia and political satire.
Rob Sitch, Utopia's co-writer and star, says he's had no need to draw on covert leaks and insights from bureaucrats for material for the show.
Gord Downie, the poetic lead singer of the Tragically Hip whose determined fight with brain cancer inspired a nation, has died. He was 53.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Good songs are like good poetry. Literature professor Robert Morrison reflects on The Tragically Hip’s best song, “Ahead by a Century,” and explains the politics of hope within the tune.
In this episode we look at historical visions of the future and how accurate they were, the future of work, and what it's like to predict the future for a day job.
Given that cities may be home to 80% of humanity by the end of the century, they can only be sustainable if eco-friendliness is one of their core features.