Clark, Rebecca Bee Braithwaite (2019) “Where I Feel Most Comfortable in the World”: Searching Utopia for Home. Doctoral thesis, La Trobe University.
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Abstract
This thesis explores the meaning of ‘home’ for lifestyle migrants and their adult children living in Auroville, an international intentional community in Southern India. I ask why it is that people choose to live in a place like Auroville, and what does this intentional community give to people that they cannot find elsewhere? Additionally, in consideration of this, how do second and subsequent generations of Aurovilians interpret their parents’ motivations for joining while navigating their own relationships with the community? I also consider the relationship non-Aurovilians, be they guests or the thousands of people who live nearby and interact with Auroville on a daily basis, have with the community. I argue that Auroville is a repository for people for whom
‘home,’ already an ambiguous notion, is utopian in the sense that it is something for which they strive knowing they may never realise. Instead of finding ‘home,’ I suggest that in this intentionally liminal space, a sense of communitas driven by a shared feeling of being somewhat a misfit in the place(s) from which they came and by their shared pursuit for something recognisable as authentic endeavour, gives individuals a feeling approximating ‘at homeness.’ That is, one may not feel necessarily that Auroville is home, but it can be nonetheless a place where the feeling of being at home is stronger than anywhere else.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Collective Organisation > Collective Organisation (General) Culture and Diversity > Culture and Diversity (General) |
| Depositing User: | Admin User |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Jun 2020 09:00 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Jun 2020 09:00 |
| URI: | http://aurorepo.in/id/eprint/43 |
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