A “black and white” future: the utopia-dystopia antinomy and its uses in education. A reflection

Résumé

The article, starting from two interpretative paradigms of the contemporary time (the end of history and the risk society), tries to demonstrate how the feeling of security that pervades the way of life of opulent societies is paradoxically combined with a parallel concern for living in a world full of sense of catastrophe. The fear for the future is reduced to a background anxiety, with the consequence that human agency is weakened and reduced to a sense of impotence or tension towards nihilism. Utopia and dystopia, proposed as an antinomy of education, can become categories to be used in education. We will reflect on the potential of dystopian film narrations which, if enjoyed alone, can generate anxiety and a sense of impotence, while, if managed within the educational relationship, they could stimulate the search for a sense of historical belonging and value horizons on which to base individual and collective choices and actions.