FUNCTIONS AND CLAIMS OF UTOPIA |
| This is a comparative table of the social functions of media, utopia, history, and art, compiled from several authors, listed below. 'Functionalism' is often rejected in the social sciences, a rejection which may be politically motivated. The table of uses gives an indication, at least, of the political claims of utopia. For a comparison, see the listed claims of nationalism. Compiled 1999. |
| Uses of media | Uses of utopia | No. | Uses of history | Uses of art |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Escape | Escape from an unpleasant reality, quest for the Holy Grail or paradise | 1 | ... | Escapist, utopian |
| Societal mobilization, co-ordination, consensus | Blueprint for a better society, promotion of British imperialism | 2 | ... | ... |
| Comment | A better society which later might exist - speculation, antennae sensitive to the future, vision of the ending of hunger. Age-old needs of man laid bare | 3 | ... | ... |
| Signpost, mirror | A rational construction for moral instruction, rationalist discourse about ideal city | 4 | ... | Role-models, goal-defining, esthethic norms |
| Entertainment | Scholarly fable (elite amusement) | 5 | Aesthetic improvment of the past | Promoting confidence, pride sense of purpose |
| Explaining and interpreting | Reflection of specific crises it presumes to resolve, alignment with one side in social conflict | 6 | ... | Enactment of defiance, legitimizing violence, crystallizing identity using a work to take a stand |
| Comment, social amnesia | A reconstruction of past ideal societies | 7 | Cleaning up the past, concealing discord, retrospective success | ... |
| Commonality of values integration, continuity, reducing social tension | Idealisation of existing society, social self-adulation, mending schisms in Christian world | 8 | Nationalism, reinforce identity, alter position of ethnic groups | Strengthens social cohesion, heightening sense of solidarity, self-confidence, pride, purpose, shared pride in the creativity of the culture,legitimizing |
| Social amnesia | ... | 9 | ... | Fulfillment of erotic wishes, vicarious experience of victory, fulfillment of ego-drives |
| Screen or barrier Filter |
... | 10 | Exclude aliens Denigrate rivals |
... |
| Security through knowledge, comforting myths | Coping with anxieties/potentialities of post-industrial societies | 11 | Solace in insecurity | Counteracting anxieties |
| Support for authority, norms | ... | 12 | Political stabilisation by construction of history | Identity through identification with an artist or fictional character |
| Providing information, platform, carrier, window | ... | 13 | Mass product, repetition | ... |
| Interactive link | ... | 14 | ... | ... |
| Nostalgia | Idealized descriptions of historical societies | 15 | Content for the media | Heightening sense of solidarity, self-confidence, pride, purpose, commemoration |
| ... | Apocalyptic/millenarian view Society constructed as an opposite as a form of social criticism |
16 | ... | Contesting, challenging the status quo, helping to propagate and consolidate a counter-culture |
McQuail D. Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction London 1987 (reality deviation, 196; mediation, 52-53; functions, 71-73)
Utopia
Ames, Russell CitizenThomas More and his utopia Princeton NJ 1959, 5
Armytage W. H.Yesterday's tomorrows : a historical survey of future societies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968, 13.
Manuel, F & Manuel, F Utopian thought in the Western world Cambridge Mass. 1979, 21-25, 803-808.
History
Lowenthal, D The past is a foreign country Cambridge 1985, 331-358
Schörken, Rolf Geschichte in der Alltagswelt: wie uns Geschichte begegnet und was wir mit ihr machen Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981, 159-163.
Art
Raskin, Richard The functional analysis of art Arhus 1983: "Le chant des partisans" 168-187, overview 90-91.