Global China and the Future of Capitalism Seminar Series

Organised by

The Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong &

The Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong

in collaboration with

The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC)

Speakers:

Prof. Krishan Kumar, William R Kenan Jr, Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia

Abstract:

How did utopia conceive the modern, and in what ways did that distinguish the modern utopia from that of the ancients? What was it about modernity – science, socialism, capitalism, democracy – that most preoccupied utopian writers, and provided the material for their utopian societies? Why did this provoke a dystopian critique, vilifying the very aspects of modernity celebrated in the utopia? To what extent is utopian writing and thinking a peculiarly Western tradition, and how far is it found outside the West? This talk will consider a number of works and thinkers to show how utopia became the vehicle for an intensive and wide-ranging debate about modernity and its future. It will also raise the question, how useful is utopia at the present time, as a way of framing choices and alternatives?

Moderator:

Dr. David Palmer, Department of Sociology, HKU

The seminar was held in English.

This seminar is the first of the “Global China and the Future of Capitalism Seminar Series”.  There will be 5 seminars in 2018 and 2019. The concept note is available here.

Detail : www.socsc.hku.hk/ccspl/unm