Rethinking Utopia - Place, Power, Affect

Returning to the three constituent parts of the word: ''good'' (eu), ''place'' (topos) and ''no'' (ou); Bell reflects how these words might be thought ''nomadically'' – via a constellation of theory that asserts the importance of affective relations and posits difference as ontologically prior to identity. The ''good'' draws on Deleuze and Spinoza''s affective ethical thought; ''place'' from contemporary political geography; and the ''no'' theorized via a reading of Ahmed''s critique of happiness and Foucault''s work on power.  Among the first to offer an extended reading of utopia through the lens of affect, whilst maintaining a critical stance vis a vis the recent ''affective turn'' in the social sciences.