Ruth Levitas

Tidens Tecken ges ut en gång per år och erbjuder ett forum där samhälleliga och existentiella teman centrala för Svenska kyrkans verksamhet, vision och identitet belyses ur olika perspektiv. Vi lever i en tid präglad av förödande klimatförändringar, ökad polarisering och rekordstora flyktingströmmar. En växande krismedvetenhet sporrar visserligen till såväl innovationer som politisk handling men riskerar också hela tiden att övergå i uppgivenhet eller verklighetsflykt. I detta nummer utforskar författarna under temat Framtiden i samtiden hoppets och det utopiska tänkandets förändrade villkor i en tid där domedagsprofetiorna duggar tätt.

In this highly influential book, Ruth Levitas provides an excellent introduction to the meaning and importance of the concept of utopia, and explores a wealth of material drawn from literature and social theory to illustrate its rich history and analytical versatility. Situating utopia within the dynamics of the modern imagination, she examines the ways in which it has been used by some of the leading thinkers of modernity: Marx, Engels, Karl Mannheim, Robert Owen, Georges Sorel, Ernst Bloch, William Morris, and Herbert Marcuse. Utopia remains the most potent secular concept for imagining and producing a 'better world', and this classic text will be invaluable to students across a wide range of disciplines.

The idea of social exclusion is part of the new political language. When Labour came into government in 1997, it launched the Social Exclusion Unit to pursue this central theme. But what exactly does social inclusion mean? This revised and updated edition of The Inclusive Society? identifies three competing meanings of the term in contemporary British Politics, emphasising poverty, employment and morality. Ruth Levitas argues that there has been a shift away from understanding social exclusion as primarily a problem of poverty, towards questions of social integration through paid work and moral regulation.