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Article
Publication date: 5 November 2020

Abeer Allahham

This paper aims to assess the contemporary paradigm of urban utopia’s ability to fulfil its goals and to evaluate its attainability in the first place. Its main question is: are…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to assess the contemporary paradigm of urban utopia’s ability to fulfil its goals and to evaluate its attainability in the first place. Its main question is: are contemporary urban utopias achievable? If not, is there an alternative?

Design/methodology/approach

In light of modern urban utopia’s failure to achieve the “good city/society,” skepticism regarding utopianism has prevailed. However, many scholars stress the significance of utopianism, calling for its revival. Recently, a new paradigm of urban utopia has emerged; one that stems from present capitalist urban conditions and requires resolving its ills. It puts great emphasis on rights as a means to accomplish the good society and the just city. This research critically examines contemporary urban utopia to evaluate its ability to fulfill its goals. It poses questions such as: Does capitalism facilitates achieving its goals? Could rights as a means achieve the good city/society? If not, is there an alternative? To answer these questions, a substantially different perspective, that of Islam (as a societal system), is used as a utopic paradigm that could open up new paths for developing an alternative utopia.

Findings

It is found that despite the focus of both the Islamic societal system and mainstream contemporary urban utopia is on the concept of rights, vital dissensions exist between the two models regarding the concept of rights per se. Hence, the urban utopia of the good city and society is achievable, yet, it cannot transpire within the capitalist kaleidoscope.

Originality/value

Recently, discussions on what constitutes the future city and the alternative conceptions to the (Western) post-Enlightenment approaches generally offered in the English language planning literature have been on the rise. Therefore, this paper contributes to this debate through critically assessing Western contemporary urban utopias from a non-Western perspective, that of Islam. It introduces an alternative model based on Islamic urbanism that could open doors for deeper thinking regarding the alternative future/good city.

Details

Open House International, vol. 46 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2011

Jay Ogilvy

The objective of this paper is to make a case for a scenaric stance that holds high road and low road futures in mind at once. Opening with regrets about the total eclipse of

1732

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to make a case for a scenaric stance that holds high road and low road futures in mind at once. Opening with regrets about the total eclipse of Utopian thinking, the paper aims to move on to embrace both aspirational futures and a forthright recognition of the many ways in which things could go wrong. Adopting a scenaric stance amounts to a new, fourth attitude toward historical time and the future. The ancients lived in an ahistorical, cyclical time. Second, modernity embraced a progressive and optimistic approach to the future. Third, post‐modernity turns pessimistic about the future. Fourth, a new scenaric stance vindicates Utopian optimism by pairing it with a forthright recognition of pessimistic possibilities.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a reflective, almost philosophical paper that articulates a new attitude toward the future, which demonstrates the significance of scenario planning for attitudes toward the future.

Findings

A scenaric stance can restore the liberatory potential of Utopian thinking by yoking optimistic, aspirational futures together with a clear‐eyed recognition of the several ways that plans can misfire.

Research limitations/implications

This is a philosophical, reflective piece that does not rely on any quantitative evidence or rigorous modeling.

Practical implications

The practical implications are major: to the extent that the health of the economy relies on confidence and a willingness to take risks, a lemming‐like race to the bottom will result in a Japan‐like endless recession. A vindication is needed for aspirational scenarios.

Social implications

Everyone is better off when fewer people are living in crouch.

Originality/value

After three decades of reviewing and contributing to the literature on future studies, the author has seen nothing that remotely resembles the argument of this paper. Its value consists in its potential for lifting people's sights. One stands in danger of a loss of confidence and an endless recession. One needs to restore a sense of possibility and optimism, but can do so responsibly only if one holds on to an honest sense of the real dangers one faces.

Details

Foresight, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 August 2018

Martin Guha

Abstract

Details

Reference Reviews, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0950-4125

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2011

Benoit Vermander

This article aims at showing that the relationship between Chinese classical wisdoms and managerial practices should not be reduced to the establishment of an “art of war”…

1206

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims at showing that the relationship between Chinese classical wisdoms and managerial practices should not be reduced to the establishment of an “art of war” applicable to management practices, but should rather be understood as an ever‐evolving work of critical reinterpretation, so as to liberate the creative and strategic potential that this tradition embodies.

Design/methodology/approach

It does so by critically deconstructing the question of the “relevance” of Chinese wisdom for managerial practices, by assessing the way contemporary Sinology understands and interprets the concept of “Chinese wisdom”, and by designing a strategy for applying these insights to managerial education.

Findings

It thus shows that only historical contextualization and textual studies can ground an understanding of Chinese tradition applicable to managerial education.

Practical implications

By doing so, it helps educators to re‐anchor managerial education into the field and methodologies of humanities studies.

Originality/value

It thus goes against the utilitarian and over‐simplified syntheses of Chinese thought that are currently dominant in the managerial literature about China, and proposes new ways for making the study of China a channel through which to develop in our students a sense of relativity, complexity and empathy applicable to an array of cultural contexts.

Details

Journal of Management Development, vol. 30 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0262-1711

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2009

Christian De Cock

The purpose of this paper is to explore conceptions of radical change and utopianism in the work of Philip K. Dick and Fredrick Jameson in order to challenge the neo‐liberal…

1317

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore conceptions of radical change and utopianism in the work of Philip K. Dick and Fredrick Jameson in order to challenge the neo‐liberal orthodoxy that historical change is no longer possible. The paper relates this orthodoxy to the dominance of the realist novel as a literary genre and contrasts this with the fantastic and delirious world found in Dick's science fiction.

Design/methodology/approach

Jameson's dialectical criticism is combined with aspects of a Benjaminian montage to explore the relationships between ideology, material social organization and the forms of specific literary genres. This approach simultaneously denaturalises the present and opens up the future to the possibility of radical change without delimiting that future by prescribing its form. In this respect the paper is concerned with utopianism rather than representations of Utopia.

Findings

The paper shows how the realist novel functioned within a conservative social ideology to prevent change. In contrast works of fantasy like Dick's science fiction open up new possibilities for change and a future that is not entirely delimited by the present but, by denaturing the present, opens it up to a virtual indeterminacy that is the space of freedom.

Originality/value

Theoretically, the paper extends conceptions of radical social and organizational change by considering the limits of dominant conceptions of change and of radical conceptions that seek to represent Utopia. Methodologically the paper contributes to readings of novels in organization studies by introducing Jameson's dialectical criticism and through a critique of the dominant preoccupation in the discipline with realist novels.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2002

Douglas Brown

394

Abstract

Details

Reference Reviews, vol. 16 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0950-4125

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 February 2008

Margaret S. Elliott and Walt Scacchi

The paper has three purposes: the first is to provide a deeper understanding of the ideology and work practices of free and open source software development, the second to…

5436

Abstract

Purpose

The paper has three purposes: the first is to provide a deeper understanding of the ideology and work practices of free and open source software development, the second to characterize the free software movement as a new type of computerization movement and the third to present a conceptual diagram and framework with an analysis showing how the free software computerization movement has evolved into an occupational community.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data were collected over a four year period using a virtual ethnography in a study of free and open source software development and, in particular, a study of a free software community, GNUenterprise, located at www.gnuenterprise.org, which has the goal of developing a free enterprise resource planning software system.

Findings

It is concluded that the ideology of the free software movement continues to be one of the factors which mobilize people to contribute to free and open source software development. This movement represents a new type of computerization movement which promotes the investment of time in learning a new software development process instead of investment of money in the acquisition and use of new technology.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings are limited by a detailed study of only one free software development project.

Practical implications

This paper is of significance to software developers and managers of firms who wish to incorporate free and open source software into their companies.

Originality/value

This research presents an original conceptual diagram and framework for how computerization movements have emerged into an occupational community.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1996

Diana Winstanley, Jean Woodall and Edmund Heery

Reports on the conference on Ethical Issues in Contemporary Human Resource Management, held in April 1996. Notes concerns raised at the conference relating to a lowering of…

18586

Abstract

Reports on the conference on Ethical Issues in Contemporary Human Resource Management, held in April 1996. Notes concerns raised at the conference relating to a lowering of employment standards. These included factors such as: insecurity and risk, transfer of risk and surveillance and control. Suggests a number of alternative ethical frameworks useful in an analysis of HRM, including such elements as: basic human, civil and employment rights, universalism and community of purpose. Considers methods of defending such an ethical focus from charges of utopianism, and suggests that ethical HRM will be a developing theme over the next few years.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1988

Tibor R. Machan

Here Marx's philosophy is dissected from the angle of bourgeois capitalism which he, Marx, sought to overcome. His social, political and economic ideas are criticised. Although it…

1359

Abstract

Here Marx's philosophy is dissected from the angle of bourgeois capitalism which he, Marx, sought to overcome. His social, political and economic ideas are criticised. Although it is noted that Marx wanted to ameliorate human suffering, the result turned out to be Utopian, contrary to his own intentions. Contrary to Marx, it is individualism that makes the best sense and capitalism that holds out the best hope for coping with most of the problems he sought to solve. Marx's philosophy is alluring but flawed at a very basic level, namely, where it denies the individuality of each person and treats humanity as “an organic body”. Capitalism, while by no means out to guarantee a perfect society, is the best setting for the realisation of the diverse but often equally noble human goals of its membership.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 15 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1992

Leonard Pluta and Santo Dodaro

Introduction In addition to his economic analysis, a key component of Keynes's intellectual legacy is his methodology, derived from the fusion of social philosophy and vision with…

Abstract

Introduction In addition to his economic analysis, a key component of Keynes's intellectual legacy is his methodology, derived from the fusion of social philosophy and vision with politics, public policy concerns and economic analysis, which he employed to offer a solution to the most fundamental and pressing problems of his time. In effect, such a methodology constitutes, in spite of Keynes's opposition to classical economics, a rediscovery, and adaptation of the one used by the classical school of political economy, which had been abandoned as a consequence of the onslaught of the “neo‐classical” revolution in the late 1800s with its strict focus on “scientific” or positive economics.

Details

Humanomics, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

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