The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Organization

Martin Parker, Valerie Fournier, Patrick Reedy

Zed Books, 2007 - Political Science - 338 pages

'There is no alternative to free market liberalism and managerialism', is the orthodoxy of the twenty-first century. All too often, ordinary people across the world are being told that the problem of organization is already solved, or that it is being solved somewhere else, or that it need not concern them because they have no choices. This dictionary provides those who disagree with the evidence.

Using hundreds of entries and cross-references, it proves that there are many alternatives to the way that we currently organize ourselves. These alternatives could be expressed as fictional utopias, they could be excavated from the past, or they could be described in terms of the contemporary politics of anti-corporate protest, environmentalism, feminism and localism.

Part reference work, part source book, and part polemic, this dictionary provides a rich understanding of the ways in which fiction, history and today's politics provide different ways of thinking about how we can and should organize for the coming century.

Contents

• ABBEY OF THELEME: 1
• AMISH: 7
• ANTICAPITALISM: 13
• CONTENTS: 14
• AUROVILLE: 19
• BAKUNIN MIKHAIL 23: 69
• CAPTAIN SWING 38: 83
• GANDHI: 110
• I: 115
• GRAMEEN BANK: 117
• THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITIES 283: 122
• TRAVELLERS 292: 132
• GRASSROOTS 119: 168
• VIA CAMPESINA 302: 185
• INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY 132: 187
• VILLAGES 302: 196
• JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP 140: 201
• VOYAGE TO ICARIA 303: 202
• KALMAR 142: 208
• PIRATE UTOPIA: 212
• PORT SUNLIGHT: 218
• QUAKERS: 224
• REPUBLIC THE: 230
• ROBINSON CRUSOE: 236
• SADE MARQUIS DE: 243
• SCOTT BADER COMMONWEALTH: 249
• SLOW FOOD: 255
• SOCIAL ECOLOGY: 261
• ZAKÂT: 319
• Index: 327

About the author

Martin Parker is Professor of Organisation and Culture in the Management Centre at the University of Leicester.

Valérie Fournier is Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies in the Management Centre at the University of Leicester.

Patrick Reedy lectures in organizational behaviour and human resource management at the Business School of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Martin Parker is Professor of Organisation and Culture in the Management Centre at the University of Leicester.

Valérie Fournier is Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies in the Management Centre at the University of Leicester.

Patrick Reedy lectures in organizational behaviour and human resource management at the Business School of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Organization
• Authors: Martin Parker, Valerie Fournier, Patrick Reedy
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Zed Books, 2007
• ISBN: 184277333X, 9781842773338
• Length: 338 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Political Economy