SOCIOL 101 Chap.10 The Utopian Impulse: From Paralysis to Action
The Utopian Impulse: From Paralysis to Action
The last phase of the course asks what a fairer Aotearoa could look like and who would have to act to bring it about, which is the utopian impulse in Matthewman's definition.
Ruth Levitas treats utopia as a method rather than a fantasy or a blueprint, with three modes: digging out the good society assumed by present policy, asking what kind of people an institution wants us to become, and designing better institutions as proposals to debate. Iris Marion Young then explains why structural injustice, which has no single villain, needs a different idea of responsibility.
Her social connection model holds that anyone whose actions feed an unjust process shares a forward-looking duty to change it with others, and her parameters of power, privilege, interest and collective ability help decide where to start. Showden, Nairn and Matthews bring the question home through young activists who froze when it came to te Tiriti.
Their continuum of engagement runs from evasion to reflexivity and relationality, and groups move along it in both directions. For coursework, the chapter supplies the utopian paragraph of the essay: name the change, who is connected, who could act and what stands in the way. The same tools also help the relational encounter, where many hosts are people already building something better.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The fourth of Matthewman's aspects
- 02
Levitas and utopia as method
- 03
Liability versus social connection
- 04
Young's four parameters for acting
- 05
Pākehā paralysis and the continuum of engagement
- 06
Writing the utopian paragraph of the essay
Worked example · free
Place a volunteer group on the continuum of engagement
- 1The first response is evasion: te Tiriti is treated as somebody else's concern rather than one the group shares.
- 1Hoping a Māori member will join is representation, which places the work on Māori inside a space the group already controls.
- 1Going to hapū and asking how places should be named is sharing space, because the group goes to others instead of waiting.
- 1A Māori co-lead in governance reimagines structures, building te Tiriti into how the group makes decisions.
- 1Note that the positions are not a ladder: a change of members could move the group back, so the structure has to make the gains last.
Key terms
- Utopia as method
- Levitas's approach in which imagining a better society becomes a testable proposal to argue over rather than a fantasy or a fixed plan.
- Liability model
- Young's label for the ordinary way of assigning responsibility by finding the agent who caused a harm and blaming or punishing them.
- Political responsibility
- What the social connection model asks of people: joining with others, in the open, to reorganise the process that produces harm.
- Pākehā paralysis
- Tolich's phrase for being unable to engage constructively with te Tiriti because of fear of making mistakes.
- Representational solution
- Meeting te Tiriti obligations by recruiting Māori into an existing group, which tends to return the work to Māori.
The Utopian Impulse: From Paralysis to Action FAQ
Is the utopian impulse just wishful thinking?
Not in the course's sense. Levitas defines utopia as a method: uncover the good society hidden in current policy, ask who an institution wants us to become, and design alternatives as proposals open to criticism. A utopian paragraph in the essay should therefore name a concrete change and the people who could pursue it.
How can I be responsible for something I did not cause?
Young separates blame from responsibility. Under her social connection model, people who take part in a process that produces injustice, as shoppers, voters, students or workers, share a duty to help change it, even if none of them is guilty in the liability sense. The duty is shared, looks forward and is met collectively.
What are Young's four parameters?
Power asks who can actually shift the process, privilege asks who benefits and could absorb change, interest asks who has most at stake, and collective ability asks where people are already organised. The lecture illustrated the last with student movements, from opposing apartheid rugby tours to the 2019 climate strikes.
Why is the continuum of engagement not a ladder?
Showden and colleagues found that groups move in both directions. A group can reach sharing space and slide back when committed members leave, which is why the most durable changes were structural, such as rewritten strategic plans or a board that is half Māori. Engagement is an ongoing practice rather than a rung climbed once.
How should the utopian paragraph of the essay be built?
The Week 10 essay session gave a four-part shape: describe the change a fairer Aotearoa would make, show who is connected to the issue in Young's sense, use the four parameters to say who could act and who should lead, and identify what stands in the way, which then feeds your account of sociology's limits.
Assessment move
Take one injustice from the semester that you care about and write it in Levitas's three modes, one sentence each. Then set out Young's two models side by side for the same case and note who would be responsible under each. Use the four parameters to list real actors, including yourself, and circle the one with collective ability you could join.
Read the Showden study for the quotes that show people stuck and moving, and practise placing a group you know on the continuum without treating it as a final grade. Draft your essay's utopian paragraph in the four-part shape from the Week 10 session, then check that its obstacle sentence leads naturally into your limits paragraph.
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