Our research group funded by Gerda Henkel Stiftung will deliver its first major talk at the Democracy Institute of Central European Universit in Budapest on 23 May.
The lecture will introduce the work of the ’Democracy in East Central European utopianism’ research group. The goal of our research project is the systemic analysis of utopian and dystopian texts, focusing on the problems and conflicts utopianism highlights concerning the ideals of democracy. We investigate what elements of democratic societies have been endorsed and / or criticised by utopias, which we understand as social and political structures presented as alternatives to historical reality. The novelty of the investigation lies not only in the focus of the research -- democracy in utopianism -- but also in the scope of research: rather than focusing on Western, particularly Anglo-Saxon texts as most projects of such type do, we analyse East Central European utopian texts. This way the project contributes to the mapping of the intellectual history of Central Europe.
The lecture will be hybrid, for further details see: https://events.ceu.edu/2023-05-23/utopia-and-democracy-east-central-european-utopianism