Karl Hardy, ‘Unsettling Hope: Settler-Colonialism and Utopianism’, Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal 2nd series, 1 (2012).

Bit in lieu of abstract:

Critical investigation of the varied conceptualizations and historical effects of utopianism is an essential concern for utopian studies scholarship. Utopia has been theorized beyond a literary tradition initiated by Thomas More as “social dreaming” (Sargent) and “expressions of desire for a better way of being” (Levitas), to reference two of the more prominent contemporary formulations.

[…]

There is an opportunity, however, for a re-articulation of utopia as a means of accountability to settler colonial critique and the efforts of Indigenous peoples and their allies to reconstitute an unsettled society. This represents both a new area of focus for utopian studies scholars as well as a challenge to the imagination: the envisioning and actualization of an unsettled society.