utopian communities

communities established with the aim of realizing, or moving towards, an ideal form of society, e.g. 19th-century socialist communities such as Robert Owen's New Harmony, or modern-day sectarian religious communities such as Jonestown (Guyana). Such communities have often been short-lived, but as 'social experiments’ they have attracted considerable attention in sociology for the indication they may offer on the viability of alternative patterns of social organization. See UTOPIA, COMMUNES.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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References in periodicals archive ?

Like these utopian communities, Willow Village speaks of its founders' desire to correct imagined social problems by reinventing social life.

Will Silicon Valley's New Company Towns End Up As Failed Utopias?

Settlement houses were established, educational institutions grew, and utopian communities were founded.

New Jersey: A History of the Garden State

Organized by fortifications and civic, commercial, domestic, and religious and funerary architecture, they include government buildings like the White House and US Capitol, bridges and canals, museums, educational and other institutions, and buildings from world's fairs, as well as landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and Central Park; department stores, office buildings, factories, and entertainment venues; dwellings, such as plantations and the Mark Twain House; forts built by the US military (Fort Clatsop and Fort Sumter); and churches, cemeteries, and landmarks from utopian communities founded by religious leaders, including the Mormon Tabernacle and Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Buildings and Landmarks of 19th-Century America: American Society Revealed

What this means is that we have, at roughly the same time, the establishment of utopian communities in both the United States and Australia and Marx's announcement of a project of 'ruthless criticism' in

Utopia and the critique of political economy

From 1800 to 1899, as Chris Jennings's Paradise Now tells us, more than one hundred utopian communities were founded in the United States.

Twilight of the Idylls: Three new books on utopia in America

Actual utopian communities never work out well, though there have been many experiments, especially in America.

The dream of Utopia

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, nearly a dozen utopian communities took root in and around Puget Sound.

Trying Home: The Rise and Fall of an Anarchist Utopia on Puget Sound

Utopian communities were also established back then.

Atwood is not one for writing fantasy

Those interested in the history of utopian communities, anarchism, or the Pacific Northwest will find a fascinating and enlightening read, but the addition of Wadland's own journey will make this book appealing to a general audience as well.

Trying Home; The Rise and Fall of an Anarchist Utopia on Puget Sound

Although she could be extremely skeptical of the utopian communities constructed by her contemporaries, urban life made her optimistic and left her fulfilled.

Margaret Fuller and Her

This is no less true of religious--and for our purposes here, Christian --communities than it is of Skinnerian or Utopian communities. Those of us who have been at this for a while find conversations with those of other communal traditions and beliefs (or disbeliefs) not only helpful but necessary.

The Intentional Christian Community Handbook

Their significance is that they are all examples of such benches used in utopian communities of the 19th and 20th centuries.