In recent years, we have witnessed a resurgence of interest in ecological utopias within social movements, artistic spaces, intellectual circles, and society in general. This search for ways to integrate the promises of a better world within planetary limits is valuable in itself, and at the same time historically significant: it reveals that environmentalism demands forms of political intervention that go beyond scientific data and pedagogical models to contest the aspirational and the libidinal; and that society needs to provide the ecological transition with a desirable horizon for life.
In 2023, as part of the Energy Humanities research project, an issue of the journal Re-Visiones focused on militant ecotopias was published. The articles compiled in it were part of this trend. From various disciplinary and methodological angles, they sought to open up the horizon of ecologically grounded possible futures, compiling exercises in radical social imaginaries that could sketch out societies that are as sustainable as they are exciting. To use Bloch’s dichotomy, in contrast to the cold gaze of scientific data on the gravity of the eco-social situation, this issue of Re-Visiones sought to focus on the warm gaze that trains the prefigurative imagination of solutions.
Based on some of the works compiled in this monographic issue of Re-Visiones, presented by their authors, this seminar will address the challenges of ecological utopianism in a context in which, following recent political events, the cancellation of the future seems to be definitively winning the battle of the collective spirit. The following researchers will participate in the seminar:
Gemma Barricarte (CSIC researcher)
Concepción Cortés (National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN, CSIC)
Julia Ramírez (Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid)
Alejandro Rivero (Assistant Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid)
Vanesa Viloria (cultural manager, member of the Epífita artistic research project)
Emilio Santiago (senior scientist at the CSIC)
Those wishing to attend the seminar, which will take place at the CSIC Center for Human and Social Sciences (C/ Albasanz, 26, Madrid, Maria Moliner room: first floor, module F) on May 21 at 11 a.m., should register using this contact form.
