Utopianism for a Dying Planet: Life after Consumerism

In the face of Earth's environmental crises, utopianism offers moral and imaginative guidance for a society that emphasizes equality, sociability, and sustainability. Gregory Claeys argues that the current global warming limit of 1.5C will result in cataclysm if there is no further reduction in the cap and offers a radical Green New Deal program to withdraw from fossil fuels and cease reliance on unsustainable commodities.

Format: Hardback
Length: 608 pages
Publication date: 06 September 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

In the face of Earth's environmental breakdown, it is evident that technological innovation alone cannot save our planet. A more radical approach is required, one that involves profound changes in individual and collective behavior.

Utopianism for a Dying Planet explores the ways in which the expansive history of utopian thought, from its origins in ancient Sparta and ideas of the Golden Age to today's thinkers, can offer moral and imaginative guidance in the face of catastrophe. The utopian tradition, which has been critical of conspicuous consumption and luxurious indulgence, might light a path to a society that emphasizes equality, sociability, and sustainability.

Gregory Claeys unfolds his argument through a wide-ranging consideration of utopian literature, social theory, and intentional communities. He defends a realist definition of utopia, focusing on ideas of sociability and belonging as central to utopian narratives. He surveys the development of these themes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before examining twentieth- and twenty-first-century debates about alternatives to consumerism. Claeys contends that the current global warming limit of 1.5C (2.7F) will result in cataclysm if there is no further reduction in the cap. In response, he offers a radical Green New Deal program, which combines ideas from the theory of sociability with proposals to withdraw from fossil fuels and cease reliance on unsustainable commodities.

An urgent and comprehensive search for antidotes to our planet's destruction, Utopianism for a Dying Planet asks for a revival of utopian ideas, not as an escape from reality, but as a powerful means of changing it.

Weight: 1026g
Dimension: 167 x 244 x 43 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691170046