Hope, vision and social moblization

 As we have now seen, following about 5 years of a "global slump"-at least for Europe and the US,  with  the ever present danger of another crisis, perhaps the breakup of the Eurozone,  we can also see elements of opportunity coming  out of present conditions.  Recently, a number of scholars have suggested that the multiple nature of the present legitimacy crises (Habermas) portends a choice between a newly reconstituted society based on liberté, égalité, fraternité the vision of the Enlightenment,  or the decomposition of existing society into a dystopic "Mad Max" world.  While elites of finance grow  prosperous, stagnating economies,   growing inequality,   declining mobility, and the limited ability of Western governments to foster growth has not only led to number of legitimation crises, but within the various "public spheres" of global civil society, two trends are emergent. On the one hand, we have a number of utopian visions, some rooted in the Enlightenment values of democracy, equality and social justice. I would suggest that within the cultural legacies of the West there have been a number of moments in which utopian visions of empowerment, equality and democracy have been seen-indeed the 1776, 1789 and 1848 revolutions, the Paris commune, abolition, suffrage, can be seen as steps on the way to Utopian visions of what might be- its elements are already evident in the   emergence of various progressive movements.  One could suggests that play, the ludic contains utopian elements of freedom, agency and community I would argue that social theory resurrect concerns with   hope, vision and that we rethink Utopian thought, rooted in the Enlightenment, such diverse thinkers social thinkers as Mannheim, Adorno, Fromm, Buber, Marcuse and Bloch, lest the future portend  a more dystopic, authoritarian, polluted, impoverished world.