My current research seeks to bridge theoretically-oriented utopian studies and critical theory with empirically-oriented communal studies through ethnographic research in utopian intentional communities. This project builds on the recent turn to ethnography in political theory and utilizes a grounded theory method. I have begun fieldwork at Tamera in southern Portugal. The project was intended to compare Tamera with two other communities in Europe (Findhorn and ZEGG). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has created difficulties here. Rather than face the pandemic with annoyance I am trying to listen to what it might be teaching me and focus on communities “closer to home.” To that end, I am currently beginning research at several communities in the States. I still hope to continue my research in Europe and I am currently pursuing grant opportunities for the 2020-21 academic year.
Part critical political theory, part ethnography, part militant research, the project has grown out of my own attempt to rehabilitate a utopian socialist politics in an era that has lost faith in the idea of utopia and yet obsesses over apocalypse. Buoyed by the utopian theoretical work of Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, and Simone Weil, the project grounds itself in the concrete practices of envisioning, utopia, social and environmental justice, and limits found in several contemporary utopian intentional communities.
I would be more than happy to share drafts or hear feedback. Contact me.
Monograph Table of Contents (Tentative)
A Politics of Limits: Utopian Intentions, Critical Theory, and Intentional Communities
Introduction—Politics and Limits: Laws, Walls, and Utopia
Part I—Contending: Background
Chapter 1: Utopophobia and Unbound Desire: A Genealogy of the Left’s Antipathy toward Limits
Chapter 2: A Paradoxical Relationship: Limits, Utopia, and the “Old Dreams” of Humanism
Part II—Attending: A Minor Jurisprudence of Limits
Chapter 3: Aquinas, Nomos, and Limit-Drawing (early version published in New Political Science 2018)
Chapter 4: Sophocles, Lex, and the Decomposition of Limits (short version published Law and the Senses 2020)
Chapter 5: Sacher-Masoch and Intentionality (under review)
Part III—Intending: A Comparative Ethnography of Three Contemporary Utopias
Chapter 6: Disciplining Desire: Weil and Findhorn
Chapter 7: Educating Hope: Bloch and ZEGG
Chapter 8: Practicing Intention: Kropotkin and Tamera
Conclusion: Portending: A Revolutionary Praxis of Intentionality