Prefiguring Utopia

The Auroville Experiment
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5292-3078-9
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 202 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 463 g

Auroville in Tamil Nadu, South India, is an internationally recognized endeavour in prefiguring an alternative society: the largest, most diverse, dynamic and enduring of intentional communities worldwide.

This book is a critical and insightful analysis of the utopian practice of this unique spiritual township, by a native scholar. The author explores how Auroville’s founding spiritual and societal ideals are engaged in its communal political and economic organization, as well as various cultural practices and what enables and sustains this prefiguratively utopian practice.

This in-depth, autoethnographic case study is an important resource for understanding prefigurative and utopian experiments – their challenges, potentialities and significance for the advancement of human society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Aswini Clarence-Smith, Suryamayi

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie der Lebensart, Well-Being
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Anarchismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Regional- und Städtische Wirtschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Spiritualität, Mystik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword - Bem Le Hunte

1. All Life is Yoga: An Introduction

Part 1: Culture

2. Auroville Is …

3. A Spiritually Prefigurative Culture: The Uniqueness of Auroville’s Utopian Practice

Part 2: Polis

4. Divine Anarchy? The Development of the Auroville Polity

5. Spiritually Prefigurative Politics in Practice: An Embodied Account of an Auroville Community Decision-Making Process

Part 3: Economy

6. 'No Exchange of Money'? The Development of Auroville’s Communal Economy

7. The Institutional Potential of Prefigurative Experiments: The Evolution of Collective Accounts in Auroville

8. Auroville and Beyond: The Grounded Hopes and Horizons of Spiritually Prefigurative Practice – A Conclusion

Afterword - Ana Cecilia Dinerstein

Über Autor(innen)

Aswini Clarence-Smith, Suryamayi
Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-Smith is a scholar, activist and educator based in Auroville, India, the largest intentional community in the world, where she is affiliated with the Sri Aurobindo Institute of International Educational Research.