“It Was Not a Failure, and It Will One Day Be Recognized as the Only Right Social Order”. On Icarian Communism

Abstract

Abstract Going beyond the idea that utopia, when it becomes a reality, is necessarily doomed in the long run, this article proposes to analyze the nineteenth century Icarian communities. Based on the current interest within the field of communal studies on the measurement of the success of utopian communities, and following the developmental communalism theory, our study addresses the economic organizational dimension of these communities, which were a testing ground for innovation and new social practices. The article provides a better understanding of how the Icarian communism inserted itself into American society and some key lessons for the implementation of emancipatory alternatives.