utopia: the good place and nowhere.

set on undiscovered islands, decades into the future, parallel universes, distant planets - utopia is always concerned with the here and now on earth. it believe another world is possible.

from the dreams and nightmares of writers into the minds of others, utopian and dystopian writing has influenced the course of history, through its warning and fears, desires and visions. utopia is politics - argument and counter argument, action and reaction, belief against disbelief...

in a time of the Big Society, capitalist crisis, revolutions in the middle east, climate change, our times will bring change. what kind of change, will depend on our ideas, vision and action.

the aim is to form an open reading group for people to meet other people who are interested in the long tradition of thinkers and activists who saw the shortcomings of the world around them and envisioned better worlds and the ways to get there. what the group discusses and does depends on who comes, what interests, ideas, creativity, skills and actions we want to develop as we go along.

the initial motivation for this course was the ongoing Ryde Town Plan process: what better place to broaden our aspiration and vision for the next ten years for Ryde than to look at the many ideas for a better society offered in utopia

the current plan is to meet fortnightly at Yelfs in Ryde- this is flexible