Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_U Date:31/3/09
Time:21:34:51 Filepath://ppdys1108/BlackwellCup/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-
9781405132879/appln/3B2/revises/9781405132879_4_U.3d
inability to quantify happiness (Bentham’s
‘felicific calculus’ is chimerical), that different
people’s happiness is incommensurable, that
the consequences of an action may take a very
long time to figure (when asked in the 1980s
what he thought of the French Revolution,
Chou En-lai said, ‘It is too early to say’), and
a fixation on consequences at the expense of
intentions (good utilitarian acts may be carried
out for monstrous reasons). Utilitarianism
only lightly brushedgeography. A form of
utilitarianism was found in the theory ofneo-
classical economicsthat was briefly taken up
ineconomic geography. tbSuggested reading
Singer (1993); Sinnott-Armstrong (2006).utility theory The basis ofneo-classical
economics, which rests on the doctrine of
consumer sovereignty and an ideological belief
in both individualism and libertarianism – that
individuals are the best judges of their own
needs. A consumer’s utility function is identi-
fied based on either assumed or revealed pref-
erences and predicts choices, constrained
within the available budget (cf. revealed
preference analysis). Utility theory has
provided the base for much work on travel
behaviour and the choice of shopping centre
to patronise, referring to destination, modal
split (choice of travel mode), and choice of
route (cf.discrete choice model). rjSuggested reading
Golledge and Timmermans (1990).utopia Conventionally refers to an ideal
society,stateor commonwealth in which
the problems of the present have been trans-
cended. This is often projected as an imagin-
ary world in another space or time, as implied
by the roots of the term coined by Thomas
More in his 1516 bookUtopia, which plays
upon the Greek wordseu-topos(‘good place’)
andou-topos(‘no place’). Colloquial usage
tends to present utopias as impossible social
and political schemes, and hence a domain
of escapism, impractical dreaming or authori-
tarian attempts to construct perfect societies.
Yet utopias take many different forms and
have a variety of functions, meaning that the
concept is highly contested (Levitas, 1990).
Utopias find expression in fictional depictions
of the good society inliterature,filmor
other media; in experiments to establish ideal
communities; in the desire for radical changeexpressed in many political struggles as well as
visions, theories, plans and performances;
and, according to some commentators, in
an array of everyday activities that anticipate
better worlds.
Geographical concerns are central to utopia,
as its etymology suggests, with many utopias
being set in remote locations or based on spa-
tial designs for cities, architecture, landscapes
or environments. These utopias typically
express a belief in the power ofspaceto shape
human activities, whereby an ordered space
becomes a means to contain social process,
exclude historical change, and ensure har-
mony and stability (Porter and Lukermann,
1976). Such a spatial emphasis is apparent in
the long association between utopia and
cities, and in the influence of utopian thought
onurbanism(Pinder, 2005). Projecting differ-
ent spaces can defamiliarize and challenge
what exists, allowing imaginative exploration
of alternative ways of living and being. Such
utopias may function to provoke, to open
senses of possibility. Their imaginative failure
may also be of interest, in terms of what it
reveals about current limitations and con-
straints. Yet attempts to realize utopias based
on static spatial forms have been fraught
with problems and contradictions, especially
concerning their authoritarianism, required
to fix geography and freeze history to create
this ideal realm, and the need to reconcile this
with the social processes involved in their
materialization (Harvey, 2000b). The particu-
lar interests driving their visions of order have
thus come under critical scrutiny (Pinder,
2005c).
Recent years have witnessed many claims
about the ‘end of utopia’, precipitated by
events such as the collapse ofcommunism
regimes and by claims that utopian thought
is necessarily authoritarian if not downright
dangerous. Yet some geographers have argued
for a revitalization of utopianism to counteract
pronouncements that ‘there is no alternative’,
and in the process sought to reconceptualize
utopias not in terms of blueprints but in
more open and process-oriented ways. For
the utopian is a vital moment incritical the-
ory. Benhabib (1986, p. 226) identified the
task of critique as the pursuit of both the
explanatory-diagnostic and the anticipatory-
utopian, but for the most part evencritical
human geographyhas shown more of an
interest in analysis and prescription: witness
the speed at which discussions of Harvey’s
(1973)Social justice and the citymoved away
from the first two words of the title, with theirGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_U Final Proof page 795 31.3.2009 9:34pmUTOPIA