Throughout history, humans have turned to utopian visions to deal with the aftermath of cataclysmic events. Agnes Arnold-Forster explores what can be learnt from these hopeful visions and whether new utopias will emerge in the wake of the pandemic
As soon as the covid-19 pandemic started, commentators began to predict the radical social, political, and cultural changes that would come in its aftermath. This has plenty of precedents, as forward thinking has been a fundamental part of public debate for centuries.
The most obvious, and most entertaining, form of forward thinking is the utopia. Coined by Thomas More for his 1516 book of the same name, a utopia is an almost perfect imaginary society, city, or community—one that promises a range of highly desirable attributes for its inhabitants.1
Principally used to describe a fictional world, “utopia” can also refer to an actual experiment where people unite to reconfigure how they live, in radical and comprehensive ways. The term “utopian” can also be synonymous with “impossible,” “delusional,” or “unrealistic,” and it’s a playful genre: More’s Utopians, for example, used gold only for their chamberpots.
But utopias aren’t always just flights of fancy, and fundamental questions about the future of health and healthcare have often been addressed through fictional utopias. These alternative medical worlds have much to offer us, particularly as we look ahead to a post-pandemic world.
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