At the margins of ideal cities: the dystopian drift of modern utopias

Contemporary political philosophy has critically reflected on—if not denounced—the theoretical constructions and political enterprises that have been encouraged by modern Utopian tradition. This process of critical reflection has constantly signaled the tension between the emancipatory aspirations o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Schwember-Augier, F. (Felipe)|||/items/7b60eb3c-824f-4f36-871b-2eb4a0511f5b, Urabayen, J. (Julia)|||/items/08826a22-e889-4700-a7de-a9fc987c7ef9
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Navarra
Repositorio:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/64501
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/64501
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ideal cities
Utopia
Dystopia
More
Foucault
Descripción
Sumario:Contemporary political philosophy has critically reflected on—if not denounced—the theoretical constructions and political enterprises that have been encouraged by modern Utopian tradition. This process of critical reflection has constantly signaled the tension between the emancipatory aspirations of that thought and its dystopian drift. Many authors have highlighted the problems that affect the constitution of those ideal cities. However, this article will be focused on the exclusive and excluding character of those ideal narratives, of those unblemished ideal spaces, of those happy spaces that are, in the end, nonspaces. This article will explain the meanings of the modern utopias taking into account the postmodern point of view that shows the exclusion the modern utopias provoke. At the margins of the ideal cities live all those beings that the utopias have vomited out and expelled from their perfect world: monsters, abnormals, infamous, pariahs, and countryless refugees. Those beings— so well described by Arendt and Foucault, among others—are those who are not part of any ideal city; they are the stones that the builders of the perfect cities have used to build them or have discarded them.