Living Utopia?

Christopher Wimmer is a sociologist and author. From 2023-2024 he worked as a research assistant at HU Berlin, now at the “IBI - Institut für Bildung in der Informationsgesellschaft“ (Institute for Education in the Information Society). He has published several monographs and articles on social inequality, poverty research and marginalized groups, including Exclusions and Marginalisation In: Global Handbook of Inequality (2024), Die Marginalisierten. (Über-)Leben zwischen Mangel und Notwendigkeit (2024) and Global Inequality. Rethinking Socoiolgy in the 21st Century (with Tobias Rieder) (2025).

• Contents Preface to the English Edition Acknowledgments: Spas, Shukran und Taudi List of Figures 1 Between New Beginnings and Threats Why an Entire Society Comes Together in a Soccer Stadium 2 The Story Begins Why Kurdish Activists are Suddenly Challenging the State 1 Colonial Intrigues and the ‘Kurdish Question’ 2 The Kurdish Speechlessness in Syria 3 A New Party Enters the Syrian Stage 4 The Party Renews Itself 3 The “Myth of Revolution” How the Inhabitants of a City Begin to Write History 1 The Spring of 2011 2 An Unresolved Question 3 A New Type of Party? 4 Revolution by Assad’s Grace? 4 The Reappropriation of Politics How to Build a State Without Building a State 1 The Heart of the Self-administration 2 Difficulties on the Ground 3 From the Communal Administrations to the Cantons 4 The Autonomous Self-administration and an Anti-state Constitution 5 An Independent Corrective Body? 6 Jin, Jian, Azadi 7 Complexities and Contradictions 5 Basic Supply and Shortages What a Communal Economy Could Mean 1 North and East Syria as Supplier 2 Prevented Famines and Empty Houses 3 Communal or Centrally Controlled? 4 The Dominance of Oil 5 Claim and Reality of Cooperatives 6 The Crux of Property 7 Consequences of War and Poverty 6 The “Democratic Nation” Why an Arab Sheikh is Campaigning for Women’s Rights 1 Praying and Fighting Under the Cross 2 Skepticism and Commitment: Manbij and Its Muslim Minorities 3 The New, Old Majority: the Arabs 7 Lack of Medication and Recognition How an Anesthesiologist is Trying to Renew the Local Healthcare System 1 Reconstruction in Destroyed Structures 2 Diverse Challenges 3 An Important Workbench in Qamishli 4 Lack of Framework, Lack of Recognition 8 The Society as Judge Why Neighbors Understand More About Justice than Courts 1 The Establishment of a Civil Justice System 2 There is No Justice Without Women 3 Same Same but Different: the Court System 4 Prisons and Criminal Prosecution 5 A Success Story? 9 A New Generation What Education Can Mean – and Where North and East Syria Itself Can Still Learn 1 Lack of Books, Compulsory Education and Co-determination 2 Education for All? 3 More Than Just Training 4 The Female Counter-University 5 Stamped Paper 10 A Traumatized Society How War Defines an Entire Generation 1 The Long Road from Kobani to Baghuz 2 Ticking Time Bombs 3 A Contradictory Opponent 4 David against Goliath 5 Observations in Real Time 6 Outer and Inner Misery 11 Lenin and Samuel Beckett in Rojava What I Had to Promise a Souvenir Dealer References Index