Living in Utopia: New Zealand's Intentional Communities (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781138276475)

Utopia is, literally, the good place that is no place. Utopias reveal people's dreams and desires and they may gesture towards different and better ways of being. But they are rarely considered as physical, observable phenomena. In this book Sargisson and Sargent, both established writers on utopian theory, turn their attention to real-life utopian communities. The book is based on their fieldwork and extensive archival research in New Zealand, a country with a special place in the history of utopianism. A land of opportunity for settlers with dreams of a better life, New Zealand has, per capita, more intentional communities - groups of people who have chosen to live and sometimes work together for a common purpose - than any country in the world. Sargisson and Sargent draw on the experiences of more than fifty such communities, to offer the first academic survey of this form of living utopian experiment. In telling the story of the New Zealand experience, Living in Utopia provides both transferable lessons in community, cooperation and social change and a unique insight into the utopianism at the heart of politics, society, and everyday life.

Author: Lucy Sargisson,Lyman Tower Sargent
ISBN-10: 1138276472
ISBN-13: 9781138276475
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 11/28/2016
Pages: 232
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.49d