Abolition feminism and utopian justice: speculative visionary fiction and the end of gendered violence

Ruth Houghton, Nikki Godden-Rasul, Aoife O’Donoghue and Sara Vincenzotti

Chapter 29 in Research Handbook on Gender, Violence and Law, 2026, pp 472-490 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Abolition feminism is often critiqued for being ‘too utopian’. This pejorative use of utopianism overlooks the generative intersections between utopianism and abolition feminism. This chapter investigates some of these interrelationships between utopian thinking, utopian literature (specifically speculative visionary fiction) and abolition feminism. Speculative visionary fictions which envision a world without prisons, patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, capitalism and ecocide (etc) and focus on world-building speak to, are informed by and are a part of abolitionist and social justice movements. In this chapter, we read canonical and non-canonical speculative visionary fiction – particularly that which centres Black and decolonial feminist abolitionist utopias and thought – to explore conceptualizations of violence, responses to violence and prefigurative non-carceral systems for justice. We reflect on what bringing abolition feminism and speculative fiction into conversation in the academic context tells us about responses to gendered violence, and what process-focused utopian scholarship can tell us about moving towards abolitionist futures.

Keywords: Abolition feminism; Speculative visionary fiction; Utopia; Gendered violence; State violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035319398
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