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This thesis examines the relationship between utopianism and nationalism in New Zealand literature between 1817 and 1973. My research utilises the definition of both the utopia and the nation as “imagined” or “imaginary” communities (to use Benedict Anderson and Phillip Wegner’s terms), in demonstrating how they function as interdependent concepts in colonial New Zealand literature. Specifically, my research focuses on how a dominant discourse of Pākehā nationalism is influenced by the desires of colonial settlement. There is an identifiable tradition in which New Zealand is imagined as a utopian space with an ambivalence towards modernity. The settler nation is defined subjectively by different authors, retaining, however, a tradition of excluding groups which are not compatible with the authors’ utopian projections. This exclusion may be based on race, gender, class, political views or other categorisations. I view this tradition as a dialectic of changing desires and utopian visions, based on changing historical contexts, but always engaged with the central attempt to speculate the possibilities that New Zealand holds as a utopia for Anglocentric settlement. The thesis is divided into four chapters, each based on the comparison of two texts from a certain period. The first chapter compares two texts of early nineteenth century British settlement, J.L. Nicholas’ Narrative of Voyage to New Zealand (1817) and E.J. Wakefield’s Adventure in New Zealand (1845). The second chapter examines Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) and Julius Vogel’s Anno Domini 2000 (1889). The third chapter focuses on Robin Hyde’s Wednesday’s Children (1936) and John Mulgan’s Man Alone (1939). My final chapter argues that the end of this mode of writing is signalled by Smith’s Dream (1971 rev. 1973) by C.K. Stead and Intensive Care (1970) by Janet Frame, which demonstrate a changing approach to the tradition. After this point, other postcolonial voices emerge and the attempted homogeneity of settler utopianism is disrupted.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

A presente pesquisa visa compreender e analisar criticamente o discurso de sustentabilidade e as práticas constitutivas da permacultura, debatendo tanto o potencial que elas podem oferecer à construção de um utopismo dialético norteado por uma nova práxis ambiental, como as contradições geradas a partir de sua inserção em uma sociedade capitalista, orientada pelo lucro e pela tendência geral em transformar todas as coisas em mercadorias. Pensada originalmente na década de 1970 pelos australianos Bill Mollison e David Holmgren, a permacultura diz respeito à criação de assentamentos humanos sustentáveis e resilientes, feita com base em princípios e técnicas específicos. A partir da década de 1990 paralelamente à ascensão e à globalização do neoliberalismo tem sido verificado um novo boom na eclosão e disseminação de experiências comunitaristas alternativas e sustentáveis, muitas das quais baseadas na permacultura, o que é sintomático do atual estágio da geografia histórica do capitalismo, apontando de um lado para a crise estrutural e multifacetada experimentada nos dias de hoje, e, de outro, para a urgência em se buscar formas distintas de sociabilizar-se e de relacionar-se com a natureza. Sustenta-se que estas experiências configuram a etapa mais recente de um fenômeno cujas origens podem ser rastreadas na segunda metade do século XIX e que aqui se denomina contraculturas espaciais, ou seja, microexperimentos de organização e produção socioespacial, geralmente de caráter comunitarista, que nascem como tentativas de subversão à ordem dominante, onde o nível privado e a esfera do cotidiano ganham primazia e tornam-se o lócus privilegiado no qual são experimentadas e desenvolvidas técnicas, práticas e solidariedades distintas daquelas que conformam a lógica homogeneizante, individualista e alienante encabeçada pela produção capitalista do espaço. Essas espacializações alternativas são expressões essencialmente modernas e urbanas que costumam surgir com mais força e visibilidade em momentos de crise de reprodução do sistema. Tendo por base a combinação entre pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e entrevistas com seus fomentadores, bem como a realização de trabalhos de campo junto a experiências de permacultura localizadas na Argentina, no Brasil e no Chile, buscar-se-á aqui, a partir do exame crítico do sistema produtivo permacultural, discutir as possibilidades e os limites apresentados pelas contemporâneas contraculturas espaciais à construção de uma sociedade mais igualitária e ecológica. / The present investigation aims to critically understand and analyze the speech of sustainability and the constitutive practices of the permaculture, debating the potential that they offer to the construction of a dialectical utopianism orientated by a new environmental praxis; as well as the contradictions produced from its insertion in a capitalist society geared to profit and to the general tendency in turning all the things into goods. Originally thought in the decade of 1970 by the Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the permaculture concerns the creation of sustainable and resilient human settlements, based on specific principles and techniques. From the decade of 1990 in parallel with the consolidation of neoliberalism a new boom in the outbreak and dissemination of alternative and sustainable communal experiences has been observed, many of them based on permaculture, which turns out to be symptomatic of the current state of the historical geography of the capitalism. This concept points, on the one hand, to the structural and multifaceted crisis experienced nowadays; and, on the other hand, to the urgency of searching for different forms of socialize and interact with nature. It has been argued that these experiences constitute the most recent stage of a phenomenon whose origins can be traced to the second half of the nineteenth century. Here they are referred to as spatial countercultures, or, in other words, micro-experiments of socio-spatial organization and production generally of communal character. Such micro-experiments are usually born as attempts to subvert the dominant order, where the private and everyday life spheres acquire primacy and become a privileged locus where they are experienced and developed techniques, practices and solidarities; different from those that conform the homogenizing, individualistic and alienating logic represented by the capitalism production of space. Notably, these alternatives are essentially modern and urban expressions that usually arise with more strength and visibility at moments where the system faces crisis in its reproduction. Based on a combination between literature and documentary research, interviews with their developers, and fieldworks to permaculture experiences located in Argentina, Brazil and Chile; this investigation aims to critically address the permaculture system of production, discussing the possibilities and limitations that this type of spatial contemporary countercultures offer for the construction of a more egalitarian and ecological society.

Environmental deterioration and social injustice highlight the discrepancy between ‘educated' and ‘wise' and, by corollary, call into question our approach to education. In order to investigate how we might advance Education for Sustainability (EfS) in a Scottish secondary school context this research engages with: relevant theory, the educational policy context, and practice in the form of two action research pilot projects. The concepts of utopianism and design are proposed as original and potentially useful to understand, guide and evaluate EfS and are linked to an analytical framework to clarify the concept of EfS endorsed in this thesis. The analytical framework developed comprises four thinking modes: systems thinking; future thinking; an emphasis on values and priorities; and action competency, each qualified through reference to practice. The pilot projects highlighted the challenges of monitoring and evaluating; illustrated opportunities and challenges to deliver EfS theory; offered new theoretical insights into EfS implementation; and enabled reflection on the status of EfS in the wider curriculum. The challenge of undertaking action research as a postgraduate student led to critical analysis of action research in academia. The thesis highlights the potentially promising policy context to facilitate EfS, particularly in Scotland, but also the practical challenges to implement EfS. Such challenges include: concerns over the clarity of policy documents; teachers' interest and ability to facilitate pupil-led learning; and resources to support the quality of EfS being delivered. Recommendations for future research include additional classroom-based projects; policy implementation analysis; and investigation of teachers' values, attitudes and capacity. It was concluded that utopianism, design, and the four thinking modes can potentially contribute to qualifying EfS in current policy and facilitate pupils to critique the status quo, and develop and share alternative visions of a sustainable future.

This thesis studies contemporary China's heritage boom phenomenon as experienced through the everyday lives of antiquarian communities (collectors, antique dealers etc.) and heritage professionals in and around Beijing. Aiming to extend our vision beyond heritage sites and museums, which constitute the traditional subject of anthropological studies of heritage, the thesis explores the ways in which 'heritage' and 'treasure' are lived by wider Chinese urban residents, constituting a total social fact. Challenging the popular assumption made by heritage scholars in which heritage phenomenon is considered a by-product of modernity's tendency to contrast the current progress with the past as a benchmark, this thesis argues that contemporary China's heritage fever is, however, a social symptom of utopian replacement, in which the idea of linear progress promised by modernisation has been challenged by a recent nationwide utopian project of returning to 'the prosperous age' ('shengshi') with its emphasis on cyclical 'rise and fall'. Treasures of China, as 'Fragments of the Prosperous Age', have thus emerged as powerful imaginaries and resources to open up a utopian vision of ideal society based on fantastic imaginations of China's past glories. Foregrounding the relations between heritage and utopianism, the thesis subsequently investigates the complex ways in which heritage activists from state systems and antiquarian communities contribute to the utopian project from different pathways, bifurcating China's heritage phenomenon into formal and informal parts. Chapters one and two demonstrate that state-led imaginings have changed from the evolutionary perspective to one pursuing the glory of the past under the new spell of 'civilisational revival'. Officials and activists associated with formal heritage deploy a variety of discursive and bureaucratic technologies to securitise, manage and utilise China's ancient treasures, so as to legitimise the current regime. On the other hand, Chapters three and four show that collectors associated with informal heritage encounter fragments of the past in a bodily and joyful way. In ordinary antiquarian practices which juxtapose the cultivation of moral self with the patination of antique objects, collectors pursue an archaic yet neoliberal custodianship which has altered the ethics and sense of moral responsibility in the domains of market exchange. These two factions in China's heritage world may differ from each other in many aspects, but Chapter five suggests both of them, in fact, conspire to reproduce ancient 'prosperous age' ('shengshi') in the present and for the future. The thesis concludes with a discussion about the extent to which Hegel's future-oriented conception of 'capitalised History' that structures the writing of national history has transformed into a 'capitalised Heritage' in contemporary China. 'Capitalised Heritage' works to recast the importance of the Chinese nation in the contemporary world, reaching an ultimate reconciliation with the spectre and material legacies of the past.

Abstract The following study is concerned with the nature of utopianism in the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). The presence of utopianism is explored over the whole of the Party’s history from 1921 to 1950. The study is essentially a historical sociology piece, and is based on the assumption that ideas are constitutive of social reality, and in particular, that utopianism is an active ingredient in society. The CPSA’s utopian vision for a future South African emerged amidst the excitement generated amongst socialists worldwide by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution. Over the years CPSA members drew on a range of traditions and identities that shaped the content and form of the CPSA’s utopianism. This utopianism was influenced by a modernist discourse of Marxism, which was characterised by a strong confidence in the realisation of a socialist future. The CPSA’s vision was also shaped by the political landscape of South Africa, and by the influence of the Communist International. The discussions of the CPSA’s form and content provide background to an analysis of the function of utopianism in the CPSA. An investigation of utopianism’s function in the Party informs the most significant finding of the research. Utopianism played a positive role in the CPSA: it was a critical tool, and a mobilising and sustaining force. However, utopianism in the CPSA also revealed a destructive side. The negative role of utopianism in the CPSA is explored via two themes: the ‘Bolshevisation’ or purging of the CPSA in the 1930s under the directive of the Communist International, and the CPSA’s often blind loyalty to the Soviet Union. The presence of utopianism in the CPSA is thus shown to have been ambiguous. In conclusion it is suggested that utopianism is an ambiguous presence in society more generally, as it has the potential to function as both a positive and a negative force in society. This is an under explored topic in the literature on utopianism. The role that utopianism will play in any given social group is context related, however. The study argues for a more contextualised approach than is adopted in many of the seminal texts on utopia, to understanding the way in which utopianism is manifest and functions in society. The study sheds new light on the history of the Party, by revealing a previously unexplored story in the CPSA’s history, and makes a contribution to sociology in providing a detailed exploration of the nature and function of utopianism.