What does it mean to create a ›model‹ village – and what kinds of futures are imagined in the process? Across the world and throughout history, the village has served as a powerful ideal of harmony, progress, and a better way of living. Focusing on model villages in India and Germany, Rebekka Diestelkamp explores how such ideals are reworked through development agendas, aesthetic norms, and utopian aspirations. She shows how hopes for harmony and sustainability are translated into everyday practices – and how these visions can inspire collective action while also producing new tensions and exclusions. By tracing how rural futures are imagined, performed, and contested, the volume offers fresh insights into contemporary debates on sustainability, community, and social transformation.

What does it mean to create a ›model‹ village – and what kinds of futures are imagined in the process? Across the world and throughout history, the village has served as a powerful ideal of harmony, progress, and a better way of living. Focusing on model villages in India and Germany, Rebekka Diestelkamp explores how such ideals are reworked through development agendas, aesthetic norms, and utopian aspirations. She shows how hopes for harmony and sustainability are translated into everyday practices – and how these visions can inspire collective action while also producing new tensions and exclusions. By tracing how rural futures are imagined, performed, and contested, the volume offers fresh insights into contemporary debates on sustainability, community, and social transformation.