Architecture of utopian imagination: conceptualisation attempt

Authors

  • Victor Vakhshtayn Российская академия народного хозяйства и государственной службы при Президенте РФ , The Russian Presidential Academy Of National Economy And Public Administration , Российско-Британский университет МВШСЭН («Шанинка») , Russian-British Postgraduate University Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences Автор

Keywords:

utopian imagination, ideology, cognitive style, paradox, tautology, M. Weber, R. Dahrendorf, K. Mannheim, N. Luhmann

Abstract

The article investigates the relationship between sociological thinking and utopian imagination. Analyzing common epistemological interpretation of utopianism (utopia is determined primarily as a thought experiment on the construction of «ideal types»), author concludes on the need to re-conceptualize the utopian imagination in sociology. Drawing on texts of Ralf Dahrendorf, Karl Mannheim and Niklas Luhmann author allocates specific «codes» - elements of the cognitive style of the utopian imagination, traces the differences in cognitive formulas of utopian (paradoxical) and ideological (tautological) narrative.

Published

2014-07-15

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 4 (2014)

Section

Articles