Commitment and Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological PerspectiveWhat makes some communes work, while others fail? Why is it so difficult to put utopian ideals into practice? In this exciting study of the success or failure of nineteenth-century American Utopias and twentieth-century communes, Rosabeth Moss Kanter combines the results of her first-hand experiences in a variety of contemporary groups with her thorough research on earlier Utopian communities. Convinced that the Utopias of the past offer important models for social organization today, the author also stresses the need for a historical perspective in viewing contemporary movements. Kanter analyzes the ideas and values expressed and developed in communal living, she explores the methods of organization that led to commitment and success or failure in the nineteenth-century, and she deals with the dilemmas and problems that contemporary communities present. The final chapters of this brilliant study, a discussion of contemporary communes, allows the reader to see the similarities as well as the differences between nineteenth and twentieth-century communities. |
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Amana anarchist communes behavior boundaries Brook Farm brotherhood celibacy century communities charismatic cohesion commitment mechanisms communion communities tended Cooperative Cumbres defined develop deviant economic encounter groups environment established example existence experience fact feeling free love functions Georg Simmel Harmony Society hippie human Hutterites ideals ideology important individual institutions involved Iowa John Humphrey Noyes Josiah Warren Kibbutz kind labor large number larger society living membership ment moral mortification movement munes munity mutual criticism nineteenth century nineteenth-century groups norms North American Phalanx Oneida Community organization organizational participation person Phalanx political practices problems recruits relations relationships religious retreat communes ritual Saint Nazianz sense service communes sexual Shakers shared Simmel social control spiritual stew structure successful communities successful groups Synanon throughout community's history tion Tomales Bay top leaders transcendence Twin Oaks unsuccessful utopian communities values village visitors York Zoar