ABSTRACT
The promise of utopia has led to failures and even to horrors, but if we take seriously the insights of the best sociology, we should realize that a perfect society is impossible. The sociology of conflict demonstrates that conflict in inevitable, so it’s not possible to have a society free of conflict. The history of small-scale utopian communities as well as larger revolutions intended to bring about a new kind of society both provide support for the idea that conflict can’t be eliminated, and for the idea that utopian thinking tends to sabotage our attempts to make the world a better place. If we’re going to be clear-minded and sociologically informed in our social justice efforts, we need to accept imperfection and to try to understand what is possible and what isn’t.
