Making Utopia Great Again

This talk revisits and re-evaluates the critiques of utopianism offered by Karl Popper, Hannah Arendt and Isiah Berlin at our current moment in history, a time when far-right movements and emergent fascisms are confidently tapping into the power of both utopian and dystopian narratives.

Future Song: a thrutopian vision of near-future Bristol

Dystopian visions far outnumber utopian visions in literature, and my last novel, Vampires of Avonmouth, is no exception. Set late this century between Avonmouth, which has become a vertiginous mega-city, and a part of future West Africa corresponding to today's Accra, climate change is all too real, yes. But the 2087 world of the book is also pervaded by shoddy AI; it's run by technology corporations; and everyone's brains are directly connected to the internet. In effect, the first two of […]