LUCY SARGISSON - Contemporary Feminist Utopianism

We are delighted to be able to include Contemporary Feminist Utopianism in our new series on women and politics, particularly since it is the first theoretical text to be published in it. The notion of theory is a much contested and somewhat polarized area of discussion in feminism, womens studies and political science more generally. Whereas some argue that it is important to engage with and challenge existing forms of theoretical knowledge, others regard theory as an arid, abstract and masculine form of activity, one bearing little relationship to everyday lives and experiences. Lucy Sargissons book, however, demonstrates that it is possible to adopt the former position without ignoring the concerns of the latter. While reviewing and critiquing a variety of sophisticated and complex theoretical ideas in an extremely accessible way, she also remains sensitive to the relevance of these to questions about the body, sexuality, identity and power in relation to feminist politics more generally.

Sargissons concern with utopianism is, indeed, timely. As she demonstrates, feminist writing on the subject is extensive and there is a snese in which most forms of feminist theorizing have utopian aspects. However, many of these do not fulfil the definitions and criteria by which utopias are usually defined. This led Sargisson to ask the question as to whether these texts were not utopias, or whether, instead, the idea of utopia needed to be reconceived. She eventually opted for the latter point of view. Contemporary Feminist Utopianism proceeds, via a critical angagement with both feminist and non-feminist utopian writing, to argue for a new feminist understanding of what utopias involve. It is critical, in particular, of approaches which emphasize perfection and the ideas that utopias constitute blueprints for the perfect polity. Instead, it argues that while some feminists have satirized the concept of perfection, most simply avoid clusure of their utopian vision. They avoid unnecessarily restrictive definitions, leaving the possibilities open-ended.

As Sargisson shows in this book, feminists writing on utopianism draws on a wide spectrum of materialfiction, science fiction, history, political analysis and social commentary. Sargisson herself weaves and synthesizesthese ideas into a fascinating and compelling account of the ways in which transformations in gender relations might be envisaged. What she calls the new approach to utopianism focuses on dynamism and unending process. In this she calls for a new kind of feminist political theory, one which in transgressing and rendering meaningless the division between mind and body also elevates and values the physical, the emotional or the feminine.

Haleh Afshar and Mary Maynard

Series editors