Utopoly: A Utopian Research Method

Abstract

This thesis is an account of Utopoly, a new utopian research method that incorporates a game. It is the result of research provoked by a question concerning the validity of using games in the field of utopian studies. My research set out to develop methods that would complement utopian literary fiction by providing more concrete rather than abstract utopian conceptualisations. Speculative forms of utopian discourse are brought into explicitly social, political and economic configurations of utopian thought. Through the Utopoly method participants can experience utopia-as-practice by co-constructing and encountering their own vision of a utopian future. Utopoly evolved through collaborative practice-based research over several years. It was collectively imagined and improvised through a series of public workshops in which Utopoly was enacted, critiqued and subsequently modified. The method incorporates an adapted Future Workshop where participants critique and analyse established political, socioeconomic, environmental situations and then engage their imagination to produce possibilities for a better society. The architecture of the board game Monopoly is then cooperatively 'hacked' to incorporate these visions as alternative features, including values, currencies and rules. Participants then play the new game to negotiate, interact with and evaluate the utopian possibilities they have created. An important realisation for the method during the research was that the creative and utopian practices that emerged during its development should be incorporated into the method itself. The method then includes various utopian processes such as: critique, improvisation, imagination, playfulness and hopeful narratives of a better future. By enacting the method, a creative event is produced where new knowledge emerges through praxis. Utopoly contributes to the imaginary reconstitution of society. This thesis concludes with a detailed set of guidelines-like those to enable a game to be played-to allow the reproduction of the method. The method developed has already been used independently by other research groups in diverse contexts. Utopoly therefore creates utopian moments and temporary utopians and is presented as a new utopian research method in the field of utopian studies and beyond.