ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dialectical relationships of utopia and dystopia. Whether by system-transforming intellectuals or crisis-ridden awakening communities, the enactment of a utopian dystopia can be a powerful tool, inspiring ‘hopes in the darkness itself’, and excavating possibilities for alternative and more just urbanisation processes. The building of a utopian dystopia, the enactment of progressive convivial spaces in a hegemonic dystopian utopia, is to transform an exchange value-dominated urban realm to one that allows all its stakeholders a right to use urban spaces and turn them into places that nourish people’s dignity. The approval of the Express Rail Link budget meant that the village had to move, but with the help of different enlightened elites the villagers eventually decided to fight for their right to rebuild a new village to create a utopia out of a dystopia. The struggles to fight for their lived and differential spaces have continued to unfold.
