SAIIER 2021:Auroville, An Experiment in Spiritually Prefigurative Utopianism

Increasing Water Literacy in Auroville		Auroville Research Platform
Auroville, An Experiment in Spiritually Prefigurative Utopianism by Author::Suryamayi

The purpose of this project was to communicate research findings of my PhD on Auroville (awarded in January 2020) – to a broad audience, both academic and non-academic, in Auroville and beyond.

Description of project:

Throughout the past year, I worked on the production of a number of manuscripts based on my PhD thesis, a professionally edited recording of my thesis, and delivered lectures based on my PhD research.

Academic publications:

As part of this SAIIER publications project, I produced and submitted five academic publications (1 journal article and four book chapters of 6,000 – 10,000 words each) based on my PhD research and thesis to interested publishers, each of which have been reviewed and accepted. The first is already published, the others are forthcoming:

1. 2021 (Published Book Chapter). “Auroville: An Experiment in Spiritually Prefigurative Utopian Practice.” Transgressive Utopianism: Essays in Honour of Lucy Sargisson. Eds. Lyman Tower Sargent and Raffaella Baccolini. Ralahine Utopian Studies.
2. 2021 (Forthcoming Book Chapter). “Utopia and Prefiguration.” Prefiguration. Ed. Lara Monticelli. Bristol University Press.
3. 2021 (Forthcoming Journal Article). Co-authored with Lara Monticelli. “Flexible Institutionalisation: The Facilitation of Prefigurative Organisation in Auroville.” Reviewed and accepted for the special issue “Alternatives to Development: What can we learn from concreted experiences?” Eds. F. Demaria, J. Gerber, B. Akbulut, submitted to the journal Development and Change.
4. 2021 (Forthcoming Book Chapter). Co-authored with Bem Le Hunte, Katie Ross and Aditi Rosegger. “Lessons from utopia: Reflections on ‘peak transformative experiences’ in a university studio in Auroville, India.” Reviewed and accepted by the editorial team submitting a book proposal for the Palgrave Handbook on Learning for Transformation (Aliki Nicolaides, Saskia Eschenbacher, Petra Buergelt, Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, Marguerite Welch, Mitsunori Misawa, Ahreum Lim).
5. 2022 (Forthcoming Book Chapter). “Prompting Spiritually Prefigurative Political Practice: Collective Decision-Making in Auroville, India.” Eco-communities: Living together differently. Ed. Jenny Pickerill, Peter Kraftl, Sophie Hadfield-Hill. Wiley.

These will inform various academic audiences, as the above chapters and journal article are published within book projects and a special issue each in different fields: utopian studies, prefiguration, development studies, education, and intentional communities.

Book proposal:

As part of this SAIIER publications project, I developed an initial book proposal to submit to interested publishers (three had already expressed interest): editors at Ralahine Utopian Studies and Bristol University Press with whom I have published/forthcoming book chapters based on my PhD research thesis on Auroville. I am currently awaiting feedback from these editors before proceeding further with development of the manuscript.

A book would significantly enhance the visibility and impact of my doctoral research on Auroville, with the potential to reach not only an academic, but also an activist and general interest audience. As such it will also be of benefit for the Auroville project as a whole, offering an in-depth and current insight into this experiment. Particularly as, to date, there has only been one academic monograph published on Auroville – Robert Minor’s The Religious, The Spiritual and The Secular: Auroville and Secular India, on the passing of the Auroville Foundation Act, published in 1999. Aurovilian Bindu Mohanty’s PhD thesis was published as a book by SAIIER in 2004 (over 15 years ago) but presumably with a limited readership already aware of and interested in Auroville and Integral Yoga. While there have been recent book publications by Aurovilians – Akash Kapur and Anu Majumdar – these both fall in the category of literary non-fiction.

Presentations:

I delivered two online conference presentations of my PhD research on Auroville during the course of this project, the first as part of an academic conference, the second an activist conference:

• December 2020 – “Capitalism, Its Crises and Its Alternatives: Understanding Real Utopias” with Lara Monticelli as part of the Dialogue on Alternatives in the Time of Global Crises Webinar series co-hosted by the Global Tapestry of Alternatives and Global Dialogue for Systemic Change.
• July 2020 – “Auroville, the Utopian City – Documentary Screening and Discussion” as part of the Alternatives to Capitalism conference hosted within the SASE Annual Conference.

Beneficiaries included both international activist and academic audiences interested in alternatives.

I also taught modules of a university course based on my PhD research:

• January 2021 – Convenor and facilitator of the University of Technology, Sydney’s Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation “Virtual Global Studio” in Auroville.

Beneficiaries were undergraduate students of a course whose director (Prof. Bem Le Hunte) regularly comes to Auroville for a month-long immersive ‘global studio’.

PhD Thesis recordings:

As part of this project, I recorded and produced an audio version of my doctoral thesis in collaboration with Auroville Radio. The purpose of this was for the thesis to reach beyond an audience of readership. Auroville Radio is currently broadcasting individual chapters as weekly podcasts, available to all on the Auroville Radio website.

Reflections and conclusion:

I was positively surprised to see so much interest from academic publishers for this content of my PhD research on Auroville. While I had in my project proposal intended to produce a total of 3 academic chapters/journals for publication in edited volumes/issues – and, time permitting, a possible fourth – I was reached out to by other editors during the first trimester of this SAIIER publications project and invited to participate in other book projects. As a result I produced a total of 5 academic chapters/journals during the course of the project. As each of these book chapter/journal article projects had submission timelines in the first two trimesters of this project timeline, I had to prioritize these over the other outputs during that time.

Initially, I had planned to submit a book proposal to interested publishers in the first part of the project timeline, hoping to receive feedback from editors in time to advance with the production of the book before the end of this reporting period. However, the book proposal submission was pushed back and while I have had positive interactions on it with the editors I have not yet received an official review based on which I could ascertain the direction in which to work in-depth on the manuscript (i.e. agreement on structure and themes of each book chapter). That said, I have now completed the bulk of ongoing writing projects (minor revisions may still be required from editors on the forthcoming book chapters/journal article) and have both the availability and intention to continue pursuing the book project in the coming months.

I also intended to give live lectures in Auroville but the corona situation thwarted my plans for this, and I preferred to delay till an in-person interaction would be possible rather than delivering these online, as I plan to hold some reflection / collective understanding circles as part of this.