Utopias in Holland

Utopian Aspects of Social Movements in Postmodern Times: Some Examples of DIY Politics in the Netherlands

Journal article by Saskia Poldervaart; Utopian Studies, Vol. 12, 2001

"The central presupposition of this theory is that life in society is a sum of the behaviour of individuals who make choices based on a rational balancing of costs and benefits. According to this theory, inequality in society is merely the result of individual choices made on the basis of self-interest. But are activists really such autonomous, merely self-interested subjects?"

A fierce attack on the `rational actor' idea of contemporary movements is launched by Ridley (1998: 2) who states: `The moral characteristic of many protest movements is that they have no personal interest to promote, no material gain from the outcome; unlike their opponents, altruism is common.'

"Spectacular protests and
mobilisations here become the public side of the commitments which new
politics' activists are giving to dissident ways of life. In this way
reductive understandings of new politics are avoided, as are
overenthusiastic readings which only seem to notice sensational actions and
which ignore the social networks that make such actions possible (Jordan,
1999: 7)"

"According to Zablocki one may distinguish between various utopian periods. In the first one communities of Essenes and early Christians developed. The next one, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, witnessed the emergence of heretical groups that sought to put into practice the utopia of the first Christian communities. In the third utopian period, in the sixteenth...."

NEGRI ON AUGUSTINE/JOE HILL REVOLUTIONARY MODEL.