ABSTRACT
Two ambiguities have played a central role in the theory of utopia(nism) outlined in this book. The first is constitutive: utopia is a place produced through the intra-action of the ‘good’ and the ‘no’: a ceaseless oscillation between affirmation and negation; between ecstatic joy and all-too-necessary joy-killing. The second is evaluative. No one can say, for certain, that a given place is a utopia. There is no vantage point from which such a claim can be made, and the more certainty with which any such claim is made the more dangerous it becomes. Claims to utopia can all too easily mask and enable dystopia.
