Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

I performed participant observations for two weeks in Freetown Christiania, the Federation of Damanhur, and Auroville and interviewed seven people in each community about their reasons for moving to these communities. I also received replies from seventeen active Christianites, thirty-six active Damanhurians, and eleven Aurovillians to my online survey about the subject. I grouped their reasons in five categories: emotional, economic, spiritual, political, and ecological reasons. I discovered that all these reasons have a common aspect which is their contempt for globalized societies. These people have become new political subjects following their relocation in the communities where they attempt to fight various problems caused by globalization such as loneliness, economic crises, materialist lifestyles, political disengagement, and climate change. They condemn globalization as the originator of all malaise in contemporary societies which they escaped to join or found intentional communities as their havens. These havens, despite not being originally designated as political havens, have become new sources for social change in contemporary societies as they not only criticize globalized societies, but also furnish alternative ways of social organization within intentional communities.