Utopia as a method of embodying hope for the future in the present: Huxley’s ideal society in Island

Vanessa Regazzi

doi:10.13135/2704-8195/11194

Autori

Vanessa Regazzi Università di Cagliari https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3834-726X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/2704-8195/11194

Parole chiave:

perfect society, utopia, future, prefiguration, Huxley

Abstract

Utopian studies have traditionally focused on the idea of the perfect society, proposing or criticising it. Now a new perspective is emerging that sees utopia as a method for thinking about alternatives to the present and prefiguring possible futures. In this sense, it actively contributes to the ethical-political debate by proposing and evaluating principles and practices to improve individual and collective life. In this essay, I have explored this perspective by focusing my analysis on Island, a utopian novel in which Aldous Huxley pragmatically explores the potential of utopia as an analytical tool for critically examining the present, embodying a desirable and feasible alternative and proposing its contribution to utopian thought. Huxley’s contribution can be summarised as a call to consider the future as open and feasible and to adopt a pragmatic attitude that allows alternatives to be thought and practised every day, since the future is created and recreated in every moment.

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Biografia autore

Vanessa Regazzi, Università di Cagliari

Vanessa Regazzi ha conseguito la laurea magistrale in Scienze Filosofiche presso l’Università di Bologna con una tesi sulla complessità, intitolata “Lineamenti di una teoria e di una pratica della complessità: dall’irriducibilità della realtà a un’etica ecologica, per una visione integrata del mondo”. Attualmente è una dottoranda in Ricerca e Innovazione Sociale presso l’Università di Cagliari. La sua ricerca si concentra sull'evoluzione del concetto di abitare nell’ultimo secolo e sulle nuove forme di abitare, con particolare attenzione ai modelli abitativi collaborativi, come il cohousing e le occupazioni abitative. È interessata a capire come le pratiche collaborative possano contribuire a innovazioni sostenibili e inclusive nelle comunità urbane e a esplorare i confini porosi tra la dimensione formale e informale dell'abitare, sia dal punto di vista teorico che empirico. Le principali aree di ricerca sono gli studi urbani e abitativi, la giustizia sociale e spaziale, l'innovazione sociale.

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Utopia as a method of embodying hope for the future in the present: Huxley’s ideal society in Island

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Vanessa Regazzi, Università di Cagliari

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