The Nature of Utopia: The ecological foundations of Joseph Déjacque’s anarchist utopianism (c. 1850s)
In 1858, the anarchist Joseph Déjacque began to serially publish his vision of a future anarchic utopia titled L’Humanisphère. He sketches a hyper-advanced future society free from want and coercion, where humanity and nature coexist harmoniously in an anarchist ecumenopolis. This obvious ecologism, however, rests on the foundations of a highly idiosyncratic ecological understanding of politics generally and utopia in particular. Drawing on the influences of Charles Fourier and Pierre Leroux, I aim to elaborate Déjacque’s utopianism, which emerged directly out of his understanding of nature and humanity’s position within it. Politics follows nature, not the other way around.
Date:
2 May 2024, 12:30 (Thursday, 2nd week, Trinity 2024)
Venue:
History Faculty, George Street OX1 2RL
Venue Details:
Merze Tate Room
Speaker:
Ben Stemper
Organising department:
Faculty of History
Part of:
Environmental History Working Group
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Belinda Clark
