{"id":48,"date":"2019-08-30T12:50:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/revolution1313\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2026-02-16T11:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T16:40:26","slug":"welcome-to-critique-13-13","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Utopia 13\/13 | A History of the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1jFkCGZAVRk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Utopia 13\/13 in Berlin with Rahel Jaeggi and Martin Saar<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On November 24, 1971, Michel Foucault opened his lectures on <em>Penal Theories and Institutions<\/em> with these two words:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo introduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe reason for these lectures?\u201d Foucault asked. \u201cOne has only to open one\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time, Foucault was referring to the crack-down on students by the French government of then-President Georges Pompidou following the May \u201968 Revolution. Without introduction, Foucault launched into a historical analysis of government repression, while he simultaneously engaged in concrete actions, working to abolish prisons with the other members of the Prisons Information Group.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The punitive society still surrounds us today. But we now face as well other cataclysmic crises\u2014global climate change, increasing pandemics, extractive capitalism, the expository society, violent political polarization and counterrevolutions\u2014that are pushing us all to the limit.<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cNo Introduction\u201d<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once again, no introduction is necessary today. One need only open one\u2019s eyes. Crises are staring us in the face. We are past the time for diagnosis. We do not need to describe global warming, we need to reverse it. We do not need to critique pandemic measures, we need to end pandemics. We do not need another genealogy of white nationalism, we need to extinguish it. In sum, we do not need more theories of <em>krise und kritik<\/em> or <em>Zeitdiagnose<\/em>, we need <em>praxis and utopia<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But so many of us are so overwhelmed, so depressed. We feel so hopeless today, in the face of these seemingly insurmountable crises, that it is hard to even imagine where to start. We desperately need positive constructive thinking. We urgently need to look around, identify, and pursue <em>concrete utopias<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>Concrete Utopias<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are solutions to our crises. They surround us, often hidden in plain sight. We need to see them <em>now <\/em>and actualize them, support them, grow them, empower them. It is time to roll up our sleeves and realize <em>now<\/em>, in real time, our concrete utopias.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year at the Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, we will explore different experiments and models to reorganize society to address head on our current crises\u2014<em>really-existing, actually-existing, concrete utopias.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There will be no room, this year, for dystopias. We are too familiar with our present. We know its history.\u00a0This year, we will write together <em>a history of the future<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome to Utopia 13\/13!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4824\" style=\"width: 451px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4824\" class=\" wp-image-4824\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/files\/2022\/09\/more-map-utopia-1518-204x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"441\" height=\"649\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/files\/2022\/09\/more-map-utopia-1518-204x300.jpeg 204w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/files\/2022\/09\/more-map-utopia-1518-695x1024.jpeg 695w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/files\/2022\/09\/more-map-utopia-1518-768x1132.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/files\/2022\/09\/more-map-utopia-1518.jpeg 1020w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 441px) 100vw, 441px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4824\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cUtopi\u00e6 insul\u00e6 tabula.\u201d Woodcut map, December 1518, from Thomas More\u2019s Utopia.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Utopia 13\/13 in Berlin with Rahel Jaeggi and Martin Saar &nbsp; On November 24, 1971, Michel Foucault opened his lectures on Penal Theories and Institutions with these two words: \u201cNo introduction.\u201d \u201cThe reason for these lectures?\u201d Foucault asked. \u201cOne has&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1603,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-48","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12038,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48\/revisions\/12038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/utopia1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}