"Envisioning Real Utopias": A talk with Erik Olin Wright December 7, 2007

This lecture will explore a range of issues connected to the problem of envisioning radical egalitarian and democratic alternatives to existing structures of power and privilege. I will begin by outlining three central tasks that any emancipatory social science must in one way or another accomplish: diagnosis and critique of existing institutions, envisioning alternatives, and developing a theory of transformation. The talk will then explore in more detail the second of these tasks through a critical reexamination of the concept of "socialism" as an alternative to capitalism. Eric Olin Wright is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu