After the breakdown of socialist and communist systems in the East, it had become fashionable to declare the so-called "end of utopia" ("end of history," "end of narratives"). The authors of this volume do not share this view but think that it is time to rehabilitate utopian thought. The political concept of Utopia that has given its name to these transcendental projections onto the world has been too narrow to describe and analyze the moving forces of the mind perceiving human existence beyond reality. By broadening the perspectives of utopian studies, these essays enable the reader to reconstruct scholarly paradigms and strategies of utopian, complex and holistic thinking in modern cosmology, philosophy, sociology, in literary, historical and political sciences, and to compare traditions and ways of Western utopian thought to the practice in the East.

Thomas W. Rieger studied Art History, Archeology, City Planning and History at Universities Bonn, Zürich, Berlin and Columbia University, New York. He has been working at Museum of Contemporary History Bonn (Stiftung Haus der Geschichte) from 1993 to 1998, and since 1999 at Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum Hagen as co-curator of the exhibition projectMuseutopia - Steps Into Other Worlds (2002). He teaches Theory of Architecture at RWTH Aachen.

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements

IntroductionJörn Rüsen,Michael Fehr andThomas W. Rieger

Chapter 1. The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A Cross-National PerspectiveLyman Tower Sargent

PART I: POLITICS, CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONS OF UTOPIAN THINKING

Chapter 2. Aspects of the Western Utopian TraditionKrishan Kumar

Chapter 3. Visions of the FutureMichael Thompson

Chapter 4. Utopia, Contractualism, Human RightsRichard Saage

Chapter 5. On the Construction of Worlds: Technology and Economy in European UtopiasWolfgang Pircher

PART II: ARTIFICIAL WORLDS AND THE 'NEW MAN'

Chapter 6. Bodies in Utopia and Utopian Bodies in Imperial ChinaDorothy Ko

Chapter 7. Science, Technology and Utopia: Perspectives of a Computer-Assisted Evolution of HumankindKlaus Mainzer

Chapter 8. Thinking about the Unthinkable: The Virtual as a Place of UtopiaClaus Pias

Chapter 9. Natural Utopianism in Everyday Life Practice An Elementary Theoretical ModelUlrich Oevermann

PART III: MUSEUM AS UTOPIAN LABORATORY

Chapter 10. Haunted by Things: Utopias and Their ConsequencesDonald Preziosi

Chapter 11. Art Museum Utopia: Five Themes on an Epistemological Construction SiteMichael Fehr

Chapter 12. Art, Science, Utopia in the Early Modern PeriodWolfgang Braungart

Chapter 13. UtopiaryRachel Weiss

PART IV: UTOPIA AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Chapter 14. The Utopian Vision, East and WestZhang Longxi

Chapter 15. Trauma: A Dystopia of the SpiritMichael S. Roth

Chapter 16. From Revolutionary to Catastrophic UtopiaSlavoj Zizek

Chapter 17. The Narrative Staging of Image and Counter-Image: On the Poetics of Literary UtopiasWilhelm Vosskamp

Chapter 18. Rethinking Utopia: A Plea for a Culture of InspirationJörn Rüsen

Notes on Contributors Index