The Politics of Defection from an African Utopia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2510653 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stanley R Barrett (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-14 |
| Publication date | 1979-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1159501 |
| OpenAlex | W2020131030 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
Opening ParagraphBy definition Utopias are closed communities. They are established by people who believe that their basic goals-religious, social or otherwise-cannot be realized in conventional society. In order not to be contaminated by the mundane world, boundary-crossing is kept to a minimum. Members are discouraged from travelling outside the Utopias, and visitors are permitted only on a limited basis; usually, too, new members are unwelcome after a Utopia has been firmly established. Obviously Utopias vary in the extent to which the boundaries are closed (see Kanter 1972), but the above description is generally applicable. It is therefore understandable that a rapid increase in defection, and a concomitant upsurge in recruitment, should be regarded as a threat to the existence of a Utopia. From the point of view of the members, defectors have rejected the exact values that led to the Utopian movement, and thus threaten theirraison d'être. From the sociologist's perspective, a sharp increase in both defection and recruitment implies that the Utopia has begun to decline, because it cannot survive unregulated boundary-crossing
Aesthetics · Art · Boundary (topology · Economics · Environmental ethics · Face (sociological concept · Law and economics · Order (exchange · Paragraph · Perspective (graphical · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Utopia · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2014 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |