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Introduction Introduction
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Is Auroville an intentional community, hippie commune or ecovillage? Is Auroville an intentional community, hippie commune or ecovillage?
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Is Auroville a ‘utopian’ community? Is Auroville a ‘utopian’ community?
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Is Auroville some kind of ashram or religious cult? Is Auroville some kind of ashram or religious cult?
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Is Auroville a government project or neocolonial enclave? Is Auroville a government project or neocolonial enclave?
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Is Auroville a prefigurative project? Is Auroville a prefigurative project?
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2 Auroville Is …
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Published:September 2023
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Abstract
The chapter contextualizes and examines the Auroville community within various prevalent frameworks and possible definitions – those of an intentional community or ecovillage, utopian community or ashram, and government project or neocolonial enclave – discussing and drawing parallels with other contemporary or historical examples of these to best situate and understand the nature of this particular experiment. In so doing, it highlights Auroville’s unique success as the largest, most diverse and among the longest-standing intentional communities in the world, and how it is distinct from historical utopian communities given its experimental ethos and absence of a predetermined societal blueprint. While acknowledging its roots in the Indian ashram tradition and the presence of a spiritual founding figure, the chapter distinguishes Auroville from an ashram or other forms of guru-centric organizations and communities on the basis of it being a self-governed collective eschewing religious rites or doctrines. The role of the Indian government in the development of the project is also discussed, alongside the critique that Auroville is a neocolonial enclave. The chapter concludes by outlining the original theoretical lens of (spiritually) prefigurative utopianism that serves to analyse and understand Auroville’s praxis in this work.
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