A century after the creation of the last utopias, it is possible to analyse the overall changes social structures and institutions conceived by utopians have undergone in the modern era. The starting point for written utopias was the indentification of an evil, a single or multiple “social sin”, which was identified as the cause of the pernicious social order against which alternative structures founded on new principles and able to bring happiness to the inhabitants of the future community were suggested. The main function of modern utopias is thus identified in an initial social criticism – latent or manifest – of the socioeconomic conditions of the standing social order. Their analysis of social institutions, such as family, government and social stratification, allows us to distinguish different categories of utopians, based on their desire to eliminate such structures entirely or simply modify their respective weights. The proposals advanced by some authors to exclude certain categories of individuals from the future social order may lead to some considerations on the difficult path of social inclusion.
