<p>Humanity has always dreamed about a better world. These dreams has manifested themselves in the vision of Utopia - the good place, but also the non-existing place. Up until World War II man still wrote optimistic descriptions of this ideal world, and spread the idea through literature. In the aftermath of the atomic bomb and under the influence of the cold war, these publications seized to surface in literary surroundings. Despite this utopia did not die - it has only changed. Today you can find utopia, not primarily in books, but in Science Fiction. TV’s biggest Science Fiction-series, Star Trek, is perhaps the best example of this. The Master's thesis "Utopia Trek - a travel through Star Trek with the concept of utopia" takes you through the history of utopia and into its new habitat, Star Trek, where the essence of a utopia for the 21th century is found, discussed and reevaluated.</p> / <p>Mänskligheten har alltid drömt om en bättre värld. Dessa drömmar har manifesterats i visionen om Utopia - den goda platsen, men också platsen som inte existerar. Fram till andra världskriget skrev man fortfarande optimistiska beskrivningar av denna idealvärld, och spred idén via litteraturen. Efter hotet från atombomben och under påverkan av det kalla kriget, slutade dessa publikationer att dyka uppi litterära sammanhang. Trots detta dog inte drömmen utopia - det har bara förändrats. Idag kan man finna utopia, inte företrädesvis i böcker, utan i science fiction. Tv:s största science fiction-serie, Star Trek, är kanske det bästa exemplet på detta. Magisteruppsatsen "Utopia Trek - utopibegreppets resa genom Star Trek" tar dig genom utopias historia och in i dess nya hemvist, Star Trek, där essensen av ett utopia för 2000-talet upptäcks, diskuteras och omvärderas. </p>

I föreliggande avhandling undersöker Hultman hur bränsleceller och vätgas underolika tidpunkter beskrivits som delar i ett framtida energisystem 1978 – 2005. Detempiriska materialet som analyseras är statliga utredningar, böcker, rapporter,tidningsartiklar och riksdagstryck. Syftet är att undersöka vilka aktörer sombeskrev tekniken, på vilket sätt tekniken konstruerades samt hur dessa förflyttadesoch förändrades under olika tidsperioder. Avhandlingens empiri undersökstillsammans med teorier om utopier och förväntningar på teknik samt tidigareforskning om svensk energi- och miljöpolitik. Avhandlingen är indelad i kronologiskt strukturerade kapitel vilka länkas sammanav analytiska platåer. I slutkapitlet diskuteras resultaten av den historiskaförändringen från visionerna om vätgassamhällen till en vätgasekonomi i treteman. Inom det första temat analyseras omdaningar över tid med fokus påaktörer, argument och teknik. I det andra temat fokuseras hur föreställningar omtekniken byggdes upp till nya höjder mellan 2000-2005. Bland annat diskuterashur tekniska, ekonomiska, miljörelaterade och säkerhetsmässiga förväntningarskapades med hjälp av starka metaforer som vatten, vägkartan och marknaden.Dessa förväntningar gjordes på olika platser och lånades mellan lokaliteter. I dettredje temat diskuteras vätgasekonomin som en ekologiskt modern utopi. I ensådan extrapoleras framtiden utifrån en ökning i takten av teknikförändringarna,men samtidigt ska samhällsstrukturerna konserveras. / At the turn of the millennium, high expectations were connected to a technologycalled fuel cells. It was said that it could contribute in a significant way to solvingthe problem of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere andreverse the greenhouse effect. But this was not the first time fuel cells andhydrogen has been described as a technology for the future and connected todifferent kind of utopias. On the contrary, this technology has a history ofexpectations connected to it and in this dissertation the period 1978 – 2005 isanalysed with focus on reoccurring arguments, main actors and how descriptionsof expectations move between different locations and different periods of time.These questions are answered with an analysis of empirical material that containsgovernmental reports, mass media articles, scientific reports as well as field notesfrom an participatory study. In this dissertation the analysis is read together withprevious research regarding Swedish energy- and environmental politics as wellas international research about fuel cell and hydrogen. The investigation is alsoinformed by theories about utopia and sociology of expectations. The main conclusion to be drawn from the historical period 1978 – 2005 is thatthe utopia hydrogen and fuel cells are said to be parts of change, from differentpossible hydrogen societies to one hydrogen economy. This change can beexemplified with changing roles of science, technology and the state as well ashow former environmental activists and political parties change their values.

Within the science fiction genre, utopian as well as dystopian experiments have found equal representation. This balanced treatment of two diametrically opposed social constructs results from a focus on the future for which this particular genre is well known. Philip K. Dick’s VALIS, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17, and Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby, more aptly characterized as speculative fiction because of its use of magic against scientific social subjugation, each tackle dystopian qualities of contemporary society by analyzing the power that language possesses in the formation of the self and propagation of ideology. The utopian goals of these texts advocate for a return to the modernist metanarrative and a revision of postmodern cynicism because the authors look to the future for hopeful solutions to the social and ideological problems of today. Using Slavoj Žižek’s readings of Jacques Lacan and Theodor Adorno’s readings of Karl Marx for critical insight, I argue these four novels imagine language as the key to personal empowerment and social change. While not all of the novels achieve their utopian goals, they each evince a belief that the attempt belies a return to the modernist metanarrative and a rejection of postmodern helplessness. Thus, each novel imagines the revision of Žižek’s big Other through the remainders of Adorno’s inevitably failed revolutions, injecting hope in a literary period that had long since lost it.

Through the broader contextualization of ethnographic fieldwork in Havana’s newly reformed housing market, this study theorizes the Cuban late socialist condition through a lens of utopian ideological conflict. A popular narrative of free market utopia has emerged in the face of the state’s recalcitrant ideology of state socialism. The popular narrative is reproduced through growth in the informal economy, while the socialist utopian narrative is maintained by the ubiquity of its bureaucratic apparatus. Inspired by postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (1994), this thesis theorizes the Cuban state narrative as an ideological simulation, supported only through its strongest simulacrum – the government bureaucracy. Previous work on Cuba has cited the importance of access to government-purchased goods to fuel the informal economy and individual wealth accumulation. This study highlights the reproduction of a narrative of free market utopia in the desire for access to transactions as intermediaries, particularly as the deals increase in hard currency value. The passage of Decreto-Ley Number 288, which authorized the buying and selling of homes has served to rapidly capitalize the market and encourage further development of an informal network of brokers. Greater economic hybridization in the housing sector, among others, is gradually eroding the totalizing nature of the state’s socialist utopia. / text

Ce mémoire porte sur le caractère heuristique et critique du discours utopique qu’il conviendra de mettre en lumière à travers les écrits du Sous-Commandant Marcos, écrits qui constituent un cas exemplaire des mécanismes que met en œuvre le discours utopique. Partant de la définition opératoire de l’utopie comme expression d’un imaginaire social qui relèverait d’une pratique utopique dont la fonction serait de critiquer le caractère idéologique des représentations spatio-temporelles induites par l’ordre dominant et, se questionnant par la suite sur la nature de l’ordre dominant contemporain et le caractère spatial de son hégémonie grâce aux travaux d’Henri Lefebvre et de David Harvey, il s’agira de montrer comment, au sein de ses textes, Marcos parvient à produire un espace représentationnel alternatif dans lequel opère un mécanisme de neutralisation des contradictions (Louis Marin), une véritable épochè, une suspension du jugement, seule condition de possibilité du dépassement des contraintes de l’ordre dominant dans le discours et les représentations. / This thesis focuses on the heuristic and critical character of the utopian discourse, as it will be demonstrated through the Subcomandante Marcos’ writings, which present an exemplary case of the mechanisms at play in the utopian discourse. Starting with the operational definition of utopia as an expression of a social imagination resulting from a utopian practice whose function would be to criticize the ideological nature of spatiotemporal representations imposed by the dominant order and, subsequently questioning the contemporary dominant order and the spatial nature of its hegemony with the help of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey’s works, the objective will be to demonstrate how, in his texts, Marcos produces an alternative representational space in which a mechanism of neutralization of oppositions (Louis Marin), an epoché, a judgment suspension occur, that is the only condition of possibility for overcoming the dominant order constraints in the realm of discourse and representations.

Para além das questões de moradia, diversos indivíduos e grupos sociais brasileiros reivindicam o seu direito à cidade. A Comunidade Autônoma Utopia e Luta tornou-se um dos símbolos de resistência urbana brasileira, denunciando a urgência para uma revisão nas formas com que a habitação popular vem sendo tratada. Esta Comunidade, em 2005, ocupou de forma radical e estratégica uma edificação pública abandonada no Centro Histórico de Porto Alegre, convertendo-a em um equipamento urbano de práticas inclusivas a partir de projetos autônomos, ou seja, à parte do assistencialismo genérico e generalizado praticado pelos governos. Ademais, esta Comunidade entrou para a história brasileira quando influenciou uma alteração de Lei, tornando-se em seguida o primeiro caso a receber o repasse de imóveis da União para projetos de inclusão social. O presente estudo avalia o caso desta ocupação sob a ótica das autonomias comunitárias como vias alternativas e saudáveis para o desenvolvimento das cidades. Também avalia-se o discurso das requalificações de edificações, e das áreas urbanas abandonadas, para os usos sociais e comunitários. Apresentam-se referências históricas de outras autonomias “utópicas”, em casos peculiares de resistências urbanas propositivas sobre edificações e áreas abandonadas, entre as décadas de 1960 e 1980. Destacam-se, na Europa, o surgimento do Movimento Squatter e o caso da ocupação do bairro Kreuzberg, em Berlim. Em Nova York apresenta-se o caso do bairro SoHo, quando ocupado por artistas autônomos determinados a impactar profundamente no pensamento e na produção da arte, arquitetura e planejamento urbano contemporâneos. / Beyond the housing issues, several individuals and social groups claim their rights to the city in Brazil. The Comunidade Autônoma Utopia e Luta has become one of the country’s urban symbols of resistance, denouncing the urgency to review the ways in which social housing has been treated. This community, in 2005, has occupied - on an radical and strategical way - an abandoned public building, in the historic district of a big city called Porto Alegre. This action soon converted the idle building into an urban equipment of inclusive practices catalyzed by autonomous projects, that is, apart from the generic and widespread “welfare” practised by governments. Moreover, this Community made history when influenced a change of Law, becoming the first case to receive the appropriation of a public building from the Brazilian state, to be used on social projects. This study evaluates the case of this occupation, from the perspective of communitary autonomies as an alternative and healthy way for the development of cities. Also evaluates the discourse of requalification of abandoned buildings, and desolate urban areas, for social and community uses. This study presents historical references of other “utopian” autonomies, in peculiar cases of propositional urban resistances over abandoned buildings, between the 1960’s and 1980’s. Are emphasized, in Europe, the emergence of the Squatter Movement and the case of an occupation over the Kreuzberg district, in Berlin. In New York, it is presented the case of SoHo’s district, when occupied by independent artists determined to profoundly impact in the thought and production of contemporary art, architecture and urban planning.

Para além das questões de moradia, diversos indivíduos e grupos sociais brasileiros reivindicam o seu direito à cidade. A Comunidade Autônoma Utopia e Luta tornou-se um dos símbolos de resistência urbana brasileira, denunciando a urgência para uma revisão nas formas com que a habitação popular vem sendo tratada. Esta Comunidade, em 2005, ocupou de forma radical e estratégica uma edificação pública abandonada no Centro Histórico de Porto Alegre, convertendo-a em um equipamento urbano de práticas inclusivas a partir de projetos autônomos, ou seja, à parte do assistencialismo genérico e generalizado praticado pelos governos. Ademais, esta Comunidade entrou para a história brasileira quando influenciou uma alteração de Lei, tornando-se em seguida o primeiro caso a receber o repasse de imóveis da União para projetos de inclusão social. O presente estudo avalia o caso desta ocupação sob a ótica das autonomias comunitárias como vias alternativas e saudáveis para o desenvolvimento das cidades. Também avalia-se o discurso das requalificações de edificações, e das áreas urbanas abandonadas, para os usos sociais e comunitários. Apresentam-se referências históricas de outras autonomias “utópicas”, em casos peculiares de resistências urbanas propositivas sobre edificações e áreas abandonadas, entre as décadas de 1960 e 1980. Destacam-se, na Europa, o surgimento do Movimento Squatter e o caso da ocupação do bairro Kreuzberg, em Berlim. Em Nova York apresenta-se o caso do bairro SoHo, quando ocupado por artistas autônomos determinados a impactar profundamente no pensamento e na produção da arte, arquitetura e planejamento urbano contemporâneos. / Beyond the housing issues, several individuals and social groups claim their rights to the city in Brazil. The Comunidade Autônoma Utopia e Luta has become one of the country’s urban symbols of resistance, denouncing the urgency to review the ways in which social housing has been treated. This community, in 2005, has occupied - on an radical and strategical way - an abandoned public building, in the historic district of a big city called Porto Alegre. This action soon converted the idle building into an urban equipment of inclusive practices catalyzed by autonomous projects, that is, apart from the generic and widespread “welfare” practised by governments. Moreover, this Community made history when influenced a change of Law, becoming the first case to receive the appropriation of a public building from the Brazilian state, to be used on social projects. This study evaluates the case of this occupation, from the perspective of communitary autonomies as an alternative and healthy way for the development of cities. Also evaluates the discourse of requalification of abandoned buildings, and desolate urban areas, for social and community uses. This study presents historical references of other “utopian” autonomies, in peculiar cases of propositional urban resistances over abandoned buildings, between the 1960’s and 1980’s. Are emphasized, in Europe, the emergence of the Squatter Movement and the case of an occupation over the Kreuzberg district, in Berlin. In New York, it is presented the case of SoHo’s district, when occupied by independent artists determined to profoundly impact in the thought and production of contemporary art, architecture and urban planning.

Civilisation et désert : deux termes qui donnent l’impression en apparence d’être antithétiques, mais ils sont cependant et ont souvent été liés étroitement ensemble dans l'imaginaire aussi bien que dans la pratique. Depuis L'Épopée de Gilgamesh, en passant parles textes antiques et les traditions religieuses ou bien par les variations successives menant aux «découvertes géographiques», à la «modernité» et à la «mondialisation», l’idée de la civilisation a maintes fois trouvé son inverse, son révélateur et son complément dans la référence qu’elle donne au désert : quand la civilisation échoue à conquérir et à urbaniser le désert, c’est à ce même désert qu’elle retourne. Cette interaction des représentations autour des variantes contemporaines du rapport civilisation/désert n’a cessé de donner une inspiration importante depuis deux siècles à une littérature abondante sur le désert,dans laquelle la relation de ce dernier à l’espace civilisé constitue non seulement une sorte de confrontation entre deux espaces, mais aussi entre deux mondes, Occident et Orient,entre deux temps mythiques, deux visions du destin humain. Cet imaginaire se projette aussi dans les représentations des utopies– anciennes et nouvelles – pour mettre en valeur le désert.La présente thèse se donne pour objet de mettre l’accent sur l’opposition civilisation/désert à l’époque moderne. Notre lecture structuro-idéologique et socio-historique s’efforce d’identifier, pour chacun de nos quatre textes, les procédés sémiotiques et poétiques mobilisés en vue de mettre en lumière cette opposition, à savoir les mécanismes de sa représentation, de son fonctionnement et de sa mutation.Partant d’une analyse du contraste entre le discours colonial et le discours postcolonial,notre approche comparatiste repose sur la lecture de quatre oeuvres romanesques postcoloniales appartenant à quatre littératures mondiales traitant de l'opposition civilisation / désert tout en révélant la misère de l'Homme primitif face à tant de tentatives de l’Homme civilisé de l’arracher de son milieu. Les quatre oeuvres qui superposent l’Histoire à la fiction s’articulent sur une vision dénonciatrice de la civilisation moderne et sur une vision idéaliste et utopique du désert et du nomadisme. / Civilization and desert: two words which in appearance appear to be antithetical, and yet they are and have often been tightly linked in the imaginary as well as in practical experience. From The Epic of Gilgamesh, to ancient texts and religious traditions or even to the successive variations leading to "geographic discoveries", "modernity" and to "globalization", the idea of civilization has many times met its opposite, its enlightener, and its point of reference that it gives to the desert. For two centuries, this interaction in the representations about the contemporary variations of the connection civilization/desert has been continuously providing an important inspiration to an extensive literature on the desert. The latter's relationship with the civilized space not only sets up some confrontation between two spaces but also between two worlds, the Western and Eastern ones, between two mythical times, two different visions of human destiny. This imaginary experience is also shown through the representations of the utopias ancient or recent to highlight the desert. The opposition civilization/desert in modern times forms the subject matter of this thesis. Our structural-ideologicaland socio-historical reading endeavors to identify, through all four texts, the semiotic and poetic processes. These processes are featured in order to bring this opposition to the fore, which are the mechanism of its representation, functioning and mutation. On the basis of an analysis of the contrast between the colonial discourse and the postcolonial one, our comparative approach hinges on the reading of the four postcolonial novelistic works belonging to four world pieces of literature which deal with the opposition civilization/desert while featuring the misery of the primitive Man facing so many attempts of the civilized Man to force him out of his background. The four works superposing History on fiction are structured on a denunciatory vision of modern civilization and on a utopian and idealistic vision of the desert and of nomadism.

Humanity has always dreamed about a better world. These dreams has manifested themselves in the vision of Utopia - the good place, but also the non-existing place. Up until World War II man still wrote optimistic descriptions of this ideal world, and spread the idea through literature. In the aftermath of the atomic bomb and under the influence of the cold war, these publications seized to surface in literary surroundings. Despite this utopia did not die - it has only changed. Today you can find utopia, not primarily in books, but in Science Fiction. TV’s biggest Science Fiction-series, Star Trek, is perhaps the best example of this. The Master's thesis "Utopia Trek - a travel through Star Trek with the concept of utopia" takes you through the history of utopia and into its new habitat, Star Trek, where the essence of a utopia for the 21th century is found, discussed and reevaluated. / Mänskligheten har alltid drömt om en bättre värld. Dessa drömmar har manifesterats i visionen om Utopia - den goda platsen, men också platsen som inte existerar. Fram till andra världskriget skrev man fortfarande optimistiska beskrivningar av denna idealvärld, och spred idén via litteraturen. Efter hotet från atombomben och under påverkan av det kalla kriget, slutade dessa publikationer att dyka uppi litterära sammanhang. Trots detta dog inte drömmen utopia - det har bara förändrats. Idag kan man finna utopia, inte företrädesvis i böcker, utan i science fiction. Tv:s största science fiction-serie, Star Trek, är kanske det bästa exemplet på detta. Magisteruppsatsen "Utopia Trek - utopibegreppets resa genom Star Trek" tar dig genom utopias historia och in i dess nya hemvist, Star Trek, där essensen av ett utopia för 2000-talet upptäcks, diskuteras och omvärderas.

Para além das questões de moradia, diversos indivíduos e grupos sociais brasileiros reivindicam o seu direito à cidade. A Comunidade Autônoma Utopia e Luta tornou-se um dos símbolos de resistência urbana brasileira, denunciando a urgência para uma revisão nas formas com que a habitação popular vem sendo tratada. Esta Comunidade, em 2005, ocupou de forma radical e estratégica uma edificação pública abandonada no Centro Histórico de Porto Alegre, convertendo-a em um equipamento urbano de práticas inclusivas a partir de projetos autônomos, ou seja, à parte do assistencialismo genérico e generalizado praticado pelos governos. Ademais, esta Comunidade entrou para a história brasileira quando influenciou uma alteração de Lei, tornando-se em seguida o primeiro caso a receber o repasse de imóveis da União para projetos de inclusão social. O presente estudo avalia o caso desta ocupação sob a ótica das autonomias comunitárias como vias alternativas e saudáveis para o desenvolvimento das cidades. Também avalia-se o discurso das requalificações de edificações, e das áreas urbanas abandonadas, para os usos sociais e comunitários. Apresentam-se referências históricas de outras autonomias “utópicas”, em casos peculiares de resistências urbanas propositivas sobre edificações e áreas abandonadas, entre as décadas de 1960 e 1980. Destacam-se, na Europa, o surgimento do Movimento Squatter e o caso da ocupação do bairro Kreuzberg, em Berlim. Em Nova York apresenta-se o caso do bairro SoHo, quando ocupado por artistas autônomos determinados a impactar profundamente no pensamento e na produção da arte, arquitetura e planejamento urbano contemporâneos. / Beyond the housing issues, several individuals and social groups claim their rights to the city in Brazil. The Comunidade Autônoma Utopia e Luta has become one of the country’s urban symbols of resistance, denouncing the urgency to review the ways in which social housing has been treated. This community, in 2005, has occupied - on an radical and strategical way - an abandoned public building, in the historic district of a big city called Porto Alegre. This action soon converted the idle building into an urban equipment of inclusive practices catalyzed by autonomous projects, that is, apart from the generic and widespread “welfare” practised by governments. Moreover, this Community made history when influenced a change of Law, becoming the first case to receive the appropriation of a public building from the Brazilian state, to be used on social projects. This study evaluates the case of this occupation, from the perspective of communitary autonomies as an alternative and healthy way for the development of cities. Also evaluates the discourse of requalification of abandoned buildings, and desolate urban areas, for social and community uses. This study presents historical references of other “utopian” autonomies, in peculiar cases of propositional urban resistances over abandoned buildings, between the 1960’s and 1980’s. Are emphasized, in Europe, the emergence of the Squatter Movement and the case of an occupation over the Kreuzberg district, in Berlin. In New York, it is presented the case of SoHo’s district, when occupied by independent artists determined to profoundly impact in the thought and production of contemporary art, architecture and urban planning.