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