Edward Bellamy and the invention of the future. The organization of labour and the limits of utopian liberty

摘要

Recent attempts at a reevaluation of utopia stress the significance of non traditional, open-process approaches to the envisioning of the future. A classic of blue-print utopia is here analyzed through the lens of such new perspectives and found less out-of-date than generally assumed. Through the particular attention devoted to the organization of labour and to the social and political provisions aimed at ensuring liberty, Bellamy's utopian posture is observed in its long-term evolution. What ensues is a far less clear-cut rendering of Bellamy's utopian vision, which does not really seem to remain fixed and static, but proves able to evolve in due course of time.