Prefiguring Utopia: The Auroville Experiment, an auto-ethnography by Aurovilian author and academic Suryamayi Clarence-Smith, will be launched this fall by Bristol University Press.
Dr. Suryamayi Clarence-Smith is an award-winning scholar, educator and facilitator based in Auroville, India, the largest intentional community in the world.
Suryamayi holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Sussex, and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley; she is currently affiliated with the Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Educational Research (SAIIER), where she is the founding member of the Auroville Research Platform, an organisation that facilitates research on Auroville.
Scroll down for more about the book and Suryamayi’s Presentation on September 26th.
Suryamayi will be presenting her book at the California Institute for Integral Studies, as part of the Conference Sustainability and Contemplative Civilization: The Integral Vision of Sri Aurobindo.
The conference is free of charge and will be livestreamed, with in-person and virtual presenters from around the US and the globe. Among other presenters are Akash Kapur, author of NY Times book of the year, Better To Have Gone, Devdip Gangulli of the Pondicherry Ashram, Jean-Sebastien Simon, and others.
REGISTER on the CIIS website, or direct REGISTRATION LINK.
Prefiguring Utopia is a critical and insightful analysis of the utopian practice of this unique spiritual township, by a native scholar. The author explores how Auroville’s founding spiritual and societal ideals are engaged in its communal political and economic organization, as well as various cultural practices and what enables and sustains this prefiguratively utopian practice.
This in-depth, autoethnographic case study is an important resource for understanding prefigurative and utopian experiments – their challenges, potentialities and significance for the advancement of human society.
For those interested in purchasing the book from the publisher, Suryamayi has graciously made available a 50% discount with the code CNF23 for use on the Bristol University Press website only.
“Clarence-Smith’s exploration of Auroville tracks the ideas, challenges and evolution of counter-institutional practice along with the small-scale experimental projects that inhabited and advanced its collectivist vision. A wonderful, thoughtful study of intentional community life.”
Davina Cooper, King’s College London
“In a spiritually barren and broken world, utopian thinking is a necessity, not a luxury. We need to reconfigure
our society based on spiritual principles which is what Auroville does. This brilliant rendering of Auroville’s
story evokes much-needed hope and love. I strongly recommend this book to scholars, artists and activists who seek a better world.”
Sarath Davala, Sociologist, Chair, Basic Income Earth Network
