Beyond loneliness and institutions

Christie, Nils: Bortenfor anstalt og ensomhet - om landsbyer for usevanlige mennesker

Full title: Beyond loneliness and institutions - Communes for Extraordinary People

This is a book about some experimental villages for extraordinary people. Experimental in having a shared economy and communal living. Experimental in providing room for most sorts of people with a rich variety of eccentric behaviour. Experimental in reconstructing ancient social and cultural forms. Most sorts of people – many seen as " deficient" by the state classificatory system – here share all life conditions; house, meals, work, cultural life. No individual salary, no staff, no clients. The villages are not institutions, but they are not examples of ordinary life either.

From the preface:

"I have had some sort of association with these villages for 20 years, and have moved back and forth between them and life in the ordinary society. Each move has been a cultural and emotional shock. Two types of life. Two types of reasons for life. Through their differences the two illuminate each other. This book is an attempt to describe what becomes visible – on both sides."

Translations: Danish (Forlaget Klim, Århus), English (Scandinavian University Press, Oslo), French (Atélier Création Libertaire, Lyon), German ( Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart), Italian (Elèuthera, Milan), Japanese (Tokai University Press, Tokyo), Russian, Swedish (Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm)

First published: 1989, Universitetsforlaget

Nils Christie: Biography and bibliography

Rights sold to

Language Foreign publisher
American English Wipf & Stock
Danish Klim
French Atelier de Creation
Italian Eleuthera
Korean Ulyuck Publishing House

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