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(Kenneth M. Roemer, Emeritus Fellow, University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Author of The Obsolete Necessity, Utopian Audiences, and (ed.) America as Utopia

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(Tom Boland, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University College Cork)

This work explores what utopian writers have said about economic inequality. Its transdisciplinary focus is literary utopias-novels of social theory-by authors seeking solutions to the problems of economic inequality. The work challenges our moral assumptions about economic inequality-its potential for resolution-or its inevitability and the ultimate bifurcation of society. It is not an economic treatise but an exploration in social philosophy in its utopian expressions. Economic inequality sets arbitrary limits on whose contributions will benefit society, thereby squandering talent, limiting opportunities, and stifling competition-capriciously restricting the pool of competitors-by class or gender or race. As utopian writers envision a future where the extremes of poverty and wealth have been tempered, it is instructive to explore the instruments they employ; by what measures have they defeated poverty or diminished the threats boundless fortunes pose, thereby revitalizing society?