Commitment and Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective / Edition 1

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Overview

What 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674145764
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1972
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is Professor of Sociology and of Organization and Management, Yale University.

Table of Contents

Part One: The Utopian Faith
1. A Refuge and a Hope
2. Society's Maternal Bed: Idealizations of Communal Life

Part Two: Lessons of the Past
3. Commitment: The Problem and the Theory
4. Live in Love and Union: Commitment Mechanisms in Nineteenth Century Communes
5. The Comforts of Commitment: Issues in Group Life
6. Away from Community

Part Three: Problems of Today
7. Retreat from Utopia
   8 They Also Serve: Communes with Missions
8. The Limits of Utopia

• Appendix. Sample and Methodology for Study of Nineteenth Century Communes
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Lewis Coser

A magnificent book.

Harvey Cox

The strength of his book is in its imaginative concept, original insight and historical competence...will certainly be widely read and hotly discussed.

Editorial Reviews

The strength of his book is in its imaginative concept, original insight and historical competence…will certainly be widely read and hotly discussed.

Harvey Cox

A magnificent book.

Lewis Coser

A magnificent book.--Lewis Coser

The strength of his book is in its imaginative concept, original insight and historical competence...will certainly be widely read and hotly discussed.--Harvey Cox

From the Publisher