Anthro 4284 - Intentional Communities: Utopianism, Cooperation, and Culture Change from Essenes to Ecovillages

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

This class provides an overview and examination of intentional communities over the past 2,000 years and in various regions of the world. Intentional communities are groups of people who have come together to live cooperatively and communally in pursuit of their visions of a better society. We examine intentional communities past and present, foreign and domestic through the lenses of both scholarly treatments of intentional communities and accounts written by intentional community members. We move chronologically through time, beginning with the earliest intentional communities that scholars have identified and ending with a significant section on contemporary ecovillages and other sustainability-oriented intentional community movements. We also use various theoretical frameworks to guide our growing understanding of intentional communities. The class is in seminar format but includes short lectures, occasional videos, and at least one required field trip to an intentional community in or near St. Louis. An additional ethnographic internship credit opportunity involving primary research within intentional communities in or near St. Louis is available to anthropology majors who take the class, pending final budgetary approval.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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