Utopianism and infrastructural imagining in educational theory

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts two approaches to utopianism in educational theory. On the one hand, there is weak utopianism, which focuses on open-ended experimentation with potentialities existing in the present moment. On the other hand, there is strong utopianism which focuses on envisioning and mapping large-scale social transformations. Despite their differences, underlying both is an investment in thinking about infrastructure. A comparison between the author’s analysis of the social implications of corners in classrooms versus the strong utopian plans of Ivan Illich’s convivial society illustrates differences between weak and strong utopianism in educational theory while also highlighting the distinct though largely unacknowledged role of infrastructure within these utopian projects. The paper suggests that utopian desire--weak and strong--avoids topophobic (empty) utopian speculation by engaging in infrastructural experimentation, and then concludes with implications for rethinking the education of utopian desire from an infrastructural perspective.