ABSTRACT
As utopian desires may emerge from entrenched conditions that have been endured for some time, utopian critique focuses on dispositions that are experienced as fundamentally unjust. Utopian desire can consequently be described as a longing to transform society and oneself and to rearticulate power structures to engender change. bell hooks’s (1990) term “yearning” expresses this relationship, which strives for both a different world and for the catalytic activity of breaking personal and common ground. Utopian desire relates, in this sense, to both personal and political change and to the element of process. This form of utopianism allows theorizing about future social relationships and about strategies for informing political struggle beyond facts. The subject of this chapter is the struggle of various actors, including activists, architects, planners, administrators, and politicians, to participate in the planning process for Tempelhofer Feld (Tempelhof Field).
