Protopia or Utopia? Which is more solarpunk?

And which has the greatest potential to help our movement?

[IMAGES: Olalekan Jeyifous,Crown Heights & Robert McCall, The Prologue and the Promise]

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘utopia’? - a better world? A perfect one? Or a nightmare?

Solarpunk is sometimes called utopian, but most people also stress it’s not a perfect society. Maybe the better word we’re looking for to describe our movement is protopian.

This term was popularised by Kevin Kelly who argues the opposite of dystopia is not a utopian ‘perfect’ society. He says it’s one that is progressively moving to a better world. This is the essence of Kelly’s protopia.

The philosopher and writer Hanzi Freinacht has developed Kelly’s idea further. In an in-depth online essay he agrees with Kelly that utopia has lots of problems as a term.

Freinacht says it implies a state of cultural and political perfection which can easily become tunnel-visioned. It’s idealised future infers a static end-state, which when achieved, will never need to be altered.

He says it’s why utopianism has been criticised by conservatives and anarchists because they both believe;  

‘all societies have grown organically and not according to schemes, never entirely according to the plan of an architect. If the project is to recreate society in the mental image of a few visionaries or leaders, it always leads to disaster.’

Protopia, for Kelly and Freinacht, offers a more attractive path. It doesn’t say everything will be perfect for everyone.

It’s a more diverse and inclusive “vision of visions”. It focuses on the possibility and shared capacity to move in mutually desirable directions.

Freinacht argues Kelly’s version of protopia is too incrementalist to be inspiring (we’d add it’s too slow to avoid climate breakdown).

The philosopher says there should still be a broad vision of what the systems of a radically better society could be, without being a fixed utopian blueprint.

I feel for these reasons and others this makes protopian a better way to describe solarpunk than utopian.

Now you might say, “Well that’s not what I mean when I say utopia. I don’t mean this rigid 20^th century thing, I mean something more like protopia.”

The issue is when most people hear the word ‘utopia’ they think it’s one of two things that can undermine solarpunk’s potential to create the radical change we need.

One it that it’s an impossible to achieve fantasy. The other is it’s a well-intentioned plan for perfection that will end up leading us all to soviet style work camps, or worse.

Another reason why I think protopian is a better way to describe solarpunk than utopian is it’s new. Like the very term solarpunk itself it’s more of our time. It’s not dragging the baggage of the 20th century with it.

What do you think? Is solarpunk protopian, utopian or something else?

We’ve just scratched the surface of Hanzi Freinacht’s long article. Do you think there are any other parts of it that are worth highlighting?

Let us know in the comments below.

And…

• Reasons to be Letchworth: what can we learn from the garden city movement? @ Reasons to Be Cheerful

• What went right this week @ Positive News

• Power and Progress review – why the tech-equals-progress narrative must be challenged @ Guardian

• This House In London Is Covered In A Unique Terraced Green Roof @ Contemporist

• Possible Worlds - @London Elektricity @ SolarPunk Stories Playlist

Until Next Time

That's all for this update. If you like what we’re trying to do here and know someone else who might do too then please share. 

See you in the sunshine,

Alex Holland

Founder, SolarPunk Stories