Utopia, Autonomy, and the Political: Reflections on Contemporary Challenges from an Iberian Study

In the so-called “end of history” era, utopia appears to be in decline. Within contemporary modes of political engagement, it is often deemed irrelevant for articulating political goals, as cultural and social capital no longer center on utopian production. Communist utopias in particular are frequently dismissed as totalitarian or as overly centralized alternatives. As a result, frustration, melancholia, and disenchantment with universal hopes have come to characterize many contemporary political subjectivities. These affective dispositions reflect the dismantling of earlier class-struggle victories, exacerbated by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the dominance of a powerful neoliberal order. Over the past decades, however, a contrasting perspective has emerged—one that challenges formalist views of utopia, the popular “end of history” narrative and the dominance of the neoliberal order altogether. Across the globe, autonomy has been proposed as an antidote to hopelessness, with collaborative commons suggesting that alternative futures remain possible. By autonomist, I refer to any movement, initiative, or strategy of action that—though never withdrawing entirely—seeks partial distance from state structures or other externalized institutions (e.g., political parties). This is usually undertaken through practices and demands for “self-governance, free determination, direct democracy, self-organization, self-management, and self-representation” (Dinerstein 2013: 24). Within these autonomous collaborative commons, prefiguration has gained prominence as a more resonant way of envisioning and engaging with the future. This research offers a comparative analysis of eight Iberian case studies on collaborative commons (i.e., Rés-da-Rua; Assembleia de Ocupação de Lisboa; Can Batlló; Can Masdeu; A Minga; Cooperativa Integral Catalã; Los Portales; and A Aldeia do Vale), all of which have been visited in the aftermath of anti-austerity protests. In total, forty-five in-depth interviews were conducted, alongside participant observation recorded in a field diary. Drawing on extensive empirical work carried out under the broader project Imaging and Crafting for Worlds Ahead, this presentation examines the political consequences of constructing utopia on autonomist principles and actions, highlighting both the potential and the limits of this approach. I argue that, although practices aimed at embodying a future utopia can serve as powerful catalysts, they also risk constraining longer-term visions of political struggle and social transformation by relegating structural change to the background.