The great Marxist and literary critic Frederic Jameson has repeatedly written about the role of utopia within the context of literary studies and political theory, most notably in his 2005 book Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. He implies that the distinction between utopia and dystopia is not as clear and stable as it might seem. Both describe totalizing systems of social organization that are constructed as an „other“ to the world we currently live in. Utilizing Jameson’s concepts like the „anti-utopia“ or the „utopian impulse“ this lecture will take a closer look at the difference between the two systems. How are they structured and how can one draw a distinction between the two? What is their function and ultimate purpose? How can these concepts be used and made productive within art, activism and political discourse? To illustrate this tension, we will examine different examples from science-fiction as well as other utopian and dystopian concepts.