Real Utopias Project

Real Utopias

The Real Utopias Project, URL = http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/RealUtopias.htm

"The Real Utopias Project, begun in 1991, explores a wide range of proposals and models for radical social change. The basic idea is to combine serious normative discussions of the underlying principles and rationales for different emancipatory visions with the analysis of pragmatic problems of institutional design. The project itself consists of a series of conferences sponsored periodically by the A. E, Havens Center at the University of Wisconsin. Each conference is built around some provocative, innovative manuscript dealing with some salient issue in radical social change. A group of scholars from around the world is then invited to write essays engaging the ideas of this manuscript. These essays are circulated among participants and discussed at the conference. After the conference the papers are revised in light of these discussions and the author(s) of the original manuscript write a concluding essay. The collection of papers is then published in the Real Utopias Project Series by Verso publishers, London."

A project by Erik Olin Wright et al. examining possible routes towards more equality.

'real utopias', are alternatives attentive to their realization and institutional coherence, says Erik Olin Wright in this highly recommended essay, at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Inc-equal.pdf

The other 2 proposals discussed are 'large stakeholder grands' and 'market socialism'.

Erik Olin Wright has written a series of remarkable essays and book.

- On empowered deliberative democracy, five experiences, including the participative budget at Porto Alegre, are analysed, see http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/deliberative.html

- Book reviews of Charles Tilly's Durable Inequality and Alex Callinicos' Equality, at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Tilly.PDF and http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Callin-rev.PDF Easy introductions, in the form of interviews, to his lifeling work on class and inequality

- http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Polyc-int.PDF

- http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/kirby_wright.pdf

More on the basic income:

- Redesigning redistribution, at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Redesigning%20Distribution%20v1.pdf

- Basic income as a socialist project at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Basic%20Income%20as%20a%20Socialist%20Project.pdf

Five books on 'Real Utopias'

Associations and Democracy, by Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, with contributions by Paul Q. Hirst, Ellen Immergut, Ira Katznelson, Heinz Klug, Andrew Levine, Jane Mansbridge, Claus Offe,, Philippe Schmitter, Wolfgang Streeck, Andrew Szasz and Iris Young. Edited and introduced by Erik Olin Wright (Volume I, Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 1995)

Equal Shares: making market socialism work, by John Roemer, with contributions by Richard J. Arneson, Fred Block, Harry Brighouse, Michael Burawoy, Joshua Cohen, Nancy Folbre , Andrew Levine, Mieke Meurs, Louis Putterman, Joel Rogers, Debra Satz, Julius Sensat, William H. Simon, Frank Thompson, Thomas E. Weisskopf, Erik Olin Wright. Edited and introduced by Erik Olin Wright (Volume II, Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 1996)

Recasting Egalitarianism: New Rules for Accountability and Equity in Markets, States and Communities, by Sam Bowles and Herbert Gintis with contributions by Daniel M. Hausman, John E. Roemer, Erik Olin Wright, Karl Ove Moene, Michael Wallerstein, Peter Skott David M. Gordon, Harry Brighouse, Elaine McCrate, Andrew Levine, Paula England, Steven N. Durlauf, Ugo Pagano, Michael R. Carter, and Karla Hoff. Edited and Introduced by Erik Olin Wright. (Volune III, Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 1999)

Deepening Democracy: institutional innovations in empowered participatory governance, by Archon Fung and erik Olin Wright, with contributions by Rebecca Neaera Abers, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Joshua Cohen, Patrick Heller, Bradley C. Karkkainen, Rebecca S. Krantz, Jane Mansbridge, Joel Rogers, Craig W. Thomas, and T.M. Thomas Isaac. (Volume IV of the Real Utopias Project Series, London, Verso, 2003)

Redesigning Distribution: basic income and stakeholder grants as cornerstones of a more egalitarian capitalism, by Bruce Ackerman, Ann Alstott and Philippe van Parijs, with contributions by Barbara Bergmann, Irv Garfinkle, Chien-Chung Huang , Wendy Naidich, Julian LeGrand, Carole Pateman, Guy Standing, Stuart White, and Erik Olin Wright (Volume V of the Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, in press 2005)