Utopian framings of the polar regions

Abstract

This paper introduces the number’s theme, “Utopian Framings of the Polar Regions”. It notes the broad context in which “utopian” is here used in relation to the Arctic and Antarctic, and some earlier varieties of utopian framing. The paper provides a brief sketch of the focus of each of the nine “utopian” articles and the two articles in the general section.

Keywords:

• utopia
• dystopia
• idealism
• Arctic
• Antarctic

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all of the contributors for their papers and for the pleasure of dealing with them in the course of their development. As number editor, I am also conscious of a debt to those of our colleagues who are kind enough to review manuscripts, to our book review editor Julia Jabour, conference and meeting report editors Daniela Liggett and Gerlis Fugmann and Taylor and Francis production editor James Munro. I thank also two previous number editors, Urban Wråkberg and Klaus Dodds, with whom the assignation of particular articles was coordinated. Naturally, none of these people should necessarily be implicated in any of the views or interpretations presented in this introduction.

Notes

¹ For a lucid general introduction to utopia see Claeys, Searching for Utopia.

² More, Utopia; Campanella, The City of the Sun.

³ Huxley, Brave New World; Orwell, 1984; Scott, Blade Runner.

⁴ Dewey, Freedom and Culture, 150.

⁵ Consider, outside the polar community, the ideational positivism of Antonio Cassese. See Peters, “Realizing Utopia as a Scholarly Endeavour.”

⁶ Stefansson, The Northward Course of Empire.

⁷ Barnes, Let’s Save Antarctica!

⁸ Hemmings, “From the New Geopolitics of Resources to Nanotechnology,” 69.

⁹ Dahl, “The constitution and mobilisation of political power.”