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Green Utopianism and the Greening of Science and Higher Education

University of Oslo

This article deals with the description of research and higher education in three important green literary utopias: Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, and Marge Piercy'sWoman on the Edge of Time. Some common characteristics are pointed out: Compared with the present situation, research and higher education are deprofessionalized, deinstitutionalized, and democratized. Academic activities and institutions are integrated with other spheres of society, especially the civil society. According to central scholarly contributions to the field of university-society relations, processes of change in a similar direction are taking place in our societies. This article argues in favour of maintaining the university as an institutional core of academic activities. On the other hand, to advance public debate and democratic decision making about science and technology, universities should also soften their borders and cooperate and communicate more with social movements and different forums for political and cultural debate.

Key Words: green utopias • research • higher education • universities • civil society • deliberative democracy

Organization & Environment, Vol. 19, No. 1, 110-125 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1086026605285242


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