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Utopia and DystopiaWhat should I look for?

Arthur Hall

Nümbrecht, October 2010

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How did this society come into being?

• Act of God• Accident of nature beyond

human control• Violent social revolution• Peaceful social evolution• Scientific, chemical, technological inventions

• These is the causality in the film

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Where is this society located in time and space?

• In history– and real world?or

• Out of history– and fantasy world?

• This is the cosmology

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How is the social stability ensured?

• How stable is this society?• Is it maintained through a natural, undirected process?• Is it socially engineered?• Is it maintained by artificial means?• Does it have to be defended from outside? (how?)

• This is the maintenance

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What is this society’s relation to nature?

• Is it rural (countryside) or urban (city)• Is it fruitful or desolate?• What is its size and scope?

(isolated or the whole world?)• Which signs are there of climate or seasons?

(is nature present?)

• These are the physical characteristics

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How do the people relate to one another? (1)

• Is there a class structure?• What is the structure of authority and government?

– Is there any anarchy?– What is the pattern of dominance?– What size are the administration units?– Which degree of centralization is there?

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How do the people relate to one another? (2)

• What is the decision-making process?– made by the authorities? Who?– made by group or consensus?– made solely or mostly by the individual?

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How do the people relate to one another? (3)

• Crime– What is defined as criminal behaviour?– How much crime is there?– How is the crime controlled?– What is the legal system?– What are the kinds and degrees of punishment?

• These three slides are about social organisation

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How are goods and services produced and exchanged?

• How much competition is there?• How is it regulated?• What are the attitudes towards work?

– What kind of hierarchies are there in work?– How is work assigned?– What is the purpose of the work? (Is it a product or a process?)

• What are the attitudes to arts and crafts?• Which products are most typical and in demand?

• This is about economic organisation

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What is the balance between research, technology and nature?

• How much technology is there?• What is the balance between technology and nature?• How experimental, free, productive and pure is the

science?

• This is the attitude towards science

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How clearly differentiated are the two sexes?

• Are basic sex differences assumed? (mental, emotional, visual?)• How strong are the societal sex roles?

– at work– personality characteristics, self-image– emotional orientation

• Marriage– Does it exist?– Is it monogamous or permanent?– Plural?– Temporary?

• This is about gender roles and relationships

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What is assumed about man and woman?

• How are children seen?• How is man seen?• Are women seen differently from men?• How efficient and central is reason?• How important are intuition and empathy?• Which emotions are the main ones?• How is the division between:

– objective and subjective– reason and emotion– good and evil

This is epistemology

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What are the central symbols and myths of society?

• Is there a god; seen in what form?• What are the major myths, legends and folk

tales?• What are the main metaphors?

This is metaphysics

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Ten questions for you to answer with reference to the film

1. Give and explain an example of causality2. Give and explain an example of cosmology3. Give and explain an example of maintenance4. Give and explain an example of physical characteristics5. Give and explain an example of social organisation6. Give and explain an example of economic organisation7. Give and explain an example of attitude towards science8. Give and explain an example of male and female roles and

relationships9. Give and explain an example of family life10. Give and explain an example of myths and symbols of

society

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Thank you for listening

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Credits

• Framework and source structure:http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/dial/sfclass/utopchar.htm