Aquilombar the Future: From Political Disillusionment to Pragmatic Utopias

A few Sundays ago, I brought together people from different generations in my home for an aquilombamento, a gathering rooted in collective care, resistance and community-building. It was a space to discuss the difficult issues shaping our daily lives, embrace what affects us and, above all, think collectively about strategies and possible ways forward.

The purpose of the day was to reflect on pragmatic utopias. But before discussing possible futures, we needed to confront the present.

We began with a painful conversation about public security led by Cecília Olliveira. No future is possible when violence shapes everyday life, determines which bodies can move safely through the world and turns fear into part of the daily routine.

Jurema Werneck then led a discussion about the elections and a feeling that seems to resonate with many of us: we may be facing a victory for progressive forces and still feel defeated.

Perhaps because winning an election is not the same as overcoming the structures that sustain inequality, violence, racism and exclusion. Perhaps because the toll of recent years has left scars that no electoral outcome can erase. And perhaps because we know that no institutional victory, on its own, can bring about the transformations we need.

At that point, the idea of a pragmatic utopia became even more meaningful.

Ricardo Henriques, author of Pragmatic Utopia: Ambitious and Possible Futures to Accelerate Human Development in Brazil, spoke about the need to imagine futures for the country without losing sight of reality. Not as an abstract form of hope, but as the pursuit of ambitious goals supported by concrete paths towards achieving them.

We ended with Paulo Vicente Cruz and his optimistic yet pragmatic reflections on possible futures. Not a naïve optimism that ignores the seriousness of the present, but one that understands that imagining alternatives is also a form of action.

By the end, I found myself thinking that aquilombamento is itself a pragmatic utopia.

Coming together, listening, embracing one another’s pain, fostering dialogue across generations and collectively deciding what to do with that pain are concrete acts of future-building. Aquilombamento does not erase discouragement, but it prevents us from experiencing it in isolation. It does not provide ready-made answers, but creates the conditions for answers to emerge.

At a time when fear and exhaustion threaten our ability to imagine, being in community is also a form of resistance. No future will be built individually. Before it becomes policy, a project or transformation, it must first find space within our collective imagination.

And perhaps that is precisely why we come together: to prevent the present from limiting the futures we are still capable of building.