After the breakdown of socialist and communist systems in the East, it had become fashionable to declare the so-called "end of utopia" ("end of history," "end of narratives"). The authors of this volume do not share this view but think that it is time to rehabilitate utopian thought. The political concept of Utopia that has given its name to these transcendental projections onto the world has been too narrow to describe and analyze the moving forces of the mind perceiving human existence beyond reality. By broadening the perspectives of utopian studies, these essays enable the reader to reconstruct scholarly paradigms and strategies of utopian, complex and holistic thinking in modern cosmology, philosophy, sociology, in literary, historical and political sciences, and to compare traditions and ways of Western utopian thought to the practice in the East.

"...a highly readable and structured discussion about utopian thinking at the beginning of the 21st century...It is indeed fortunate that political scientists, historians, philosophers, art critics, and literary theorists have come together to share their thinking on utopia and utopian thought at this disastrous moment of human history, when many are asking if there is a future to which to look forward." ?????European Legacy