Tower and Town, May 2026 (view the full edition)A Short Overview Of UtopiaUtopia It is not unusual for humans to aspire for a better tomorrow. Indeed, progress is somewhat a manifestation of the desire for a utopian future. The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) share belief in heaven (Jannah for the Muslims) and the existence of Eden, Adam and Eve's garden of paradise. It is therefore not surprising that in his Utopia Sir Thomas More considered the Greek roots of two concepts. "Utopia" ("no place"), and "Eutopia" ("good place"). Whilst the first, "utopia", specifically refers to an achievable, good society, the second, "eutopia", is often used for the unattainable ideal. In Thomas More's search for idealism he envisioned a utopian tomorrow of religious toleration and equal learning for both men and women. So: are we in the west living through a utopian era? After all, many of the past utopian dreams of liberal democracies have been realised, prompting the American political scientist, political economist and international relations scholar Yoshihiro Fukuyama to write his book, "The End of History and Last Man". Utopian Living, Working and Not-Working When in the 19th century the new states of the American west took over the Indians' land, they told the white settlers that it was utopia. However, many migrants remained poor wandering workers on other people's farms and lumber camps - "hoboes", "bums" - and utopia was as far away as it was for the Navajo Indians. Sadly, both groups had songs about their utopian experiences. The song of the hoboes, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains", was immortalised in the 2000 film, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" In the Big Rock Candy mountains The jails are made of tin.In Britain, some of the 19th/20th century workers enjoyed much better job security and living in utopian model villages. In the Bournville model village in southwest Birmingham, the Quaker brothers George and Richard Cadbury created utopian Arts and Crafts houses for their employees at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. On the southernmost edge of Essex, rows of 222 white Bauhaus-style homes overlook the Thames Estuary. These blocky houses and rectangular factory buildings once formed the Bata-ville 1930s utopian living and working complex for the Czeck-owned Bata international footwear company. This utopia was devised by the Czeck architects František Lydie Gahura and Vladimír Karfík, who were themselves inspired by the pioneering urban planning of Le Corbusier. Raik Jarjis |