Most people are unaware of the ‘systemness’
of their everyday practices (Urry 2016:73)
From Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) to John Urry’s What is the future? (2016), utopia has been a powerful means to explore how societies change. Using utopia as a method to explore and contest futures is a powerful approach (Levitas 2013). It is at once critical, ethical, creative, and integrative. How does it help us understand current everyday practices and their relation to multi-scalar, intergenerational, more-than-human futures? How might ‘mobilising’ utopia as method provide deeper insight and creative leverage? Read more about the background here
The Mobile Utopia Experiment and The Mobile Utopia Bonfire School are organised on the Fringe of the Mobile Utopia: Pasts, presents and futures 2017 Conference – jointly organised by Cemore, T2M, and Cosmobilities, which takes place 2-5 November 2017 at Lancaster University. In these pages, we invite your participation.
In a nutshell:
The Mobile Utopia Bonfire School (29 October – 2 November 2017, Lancaster University) brings together senior and junior scholars from a range of different disciplines (history, social science, art, design, policy, engineering and more) to explore how futures and utopia as method – relate to their research. Please find further information and a call for submissions here.
The Mobile Utopia Experiment (1-2 November 2017, Lancaster University) is an exploratory pre-enactment of desirable futures, designed to make ‘pockets’ of utopian futures ‘inhabitable’ enough to enable discursive, but also embodied and playful reflection. Please find further information, examples, and a call for submissions here.
The Mobile Utopia: Pasts, presents and futures 2017 Conference (2-5th November) brings together researchers from across the globe to debate mobility futures.
If you have any questions please contact us.
Image Credits: Bob Doran