Drömmer du nu igen, lille vän? En begreppsanalys av Utopin och dess skiftande former

Abstract: Utopian studies, and the word Utopia it self, have always been controversial. In common language utopia often connects to something negative, something impossible. Diverse academic disciplines have their own definition of the word and concept. These heterogeneous views of utopia complicate the discussion in the scientific community. The starting point of this study is to reach at better and more exact definition of the concept utopia. With literature from a variety of academic subjects will I analyse the concept of utopia, not to define the substance of utopia but to define its shape. In my studies I have understand that you must climb down a bit on the ladder of abstraction, to really see the different shapes of utopia. If you have a too wide and abstract definition of a concept it’s often gets useless to scientific work. I believe you can find four quality disparate shapes of utopia. Bur they aren’t exclusively, one utopia can bring some or all shapes. The shapes are: utopia as literary genre, utopia as critics against the society, utopia as a political project and utopia as scientific method. If you then combine these shapes with the sociologist Karl Mannheim view of ideology as to preserve the society and utopianism as to undermine and change it, you will have a nice tool to understand utopia and utopian movements.