In an ageof globalization characterized by the dizzying technologies of theFirst World, and the social disintegration of the Third, is the conceptof utopia still meaningful? <em>Archaeologies of the Future</em>, Jameson's mostsubstantial work since <em>Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism</em>,investigates the development of this form since Thomas More, andinterrogates the functions of utopian thinking in a post-Communist age.The relationship between utopia and science fiction isexplored through the representations of otherness … alien life andalien worlds … and a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, UrsulaLeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more.Jameson's essential essays, including “The Desire Called Utopia,”conclude with an examination of the opposing positions on utopia and anassessment of its political value today.