Decentralizing Utopia: An Interpretive Ethnography of the Cultural Liturgies of the Catholic Worker Movement (Preliminary)
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Keywords
Anarchism, Personalism, Cultural Liturgies, Utopia, Hermeneutics, Interpretive Ethnography, Political Imagination, Post-Colonialism
Department
Political Science
Major
Political Science
Abstract
This undergraduate thesis in political science of the Catholic Worker Movement in Los Angeles, California, seeks to contribute to the primitive lexicon of [(post-)modern] anarchist anthropologies and the ongoing discovery of radical alternative utopian communities in real-time. In order to formulate a nuanced, context-situated understanding of religious alternatives to capitalism, secularism, and the secularization of politics from the bottom up, this research employs interpretive (post-colonial) ethnographic methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews to critically examine and constructively evaluate the thick descriptions of the cultural liturgies and emancipatory social practices that orient the vision of the Catholic Worker House and Hippie Kitchen. Moreover, in doing so, I employ the hermeneutic and utopian account of religious communities outlined by David Albertson and Jason Blakely, drawing upon Thomas More's writings. The result is a new form, contribution to the normative discourse on personalism, mutualism, and (spiritually) engaged withdrawal toward the creative construction of an integrative anarchism(s), an alternative subfield within the broader evaluation of (Christian) anarchist social theory, anthropological observation, and communities of imaginative, experimental praxis.
Faculty Mentor
Jason Blakely
Funding Source or Research Program
Political Science Honors Program
Location
Black Family Plaza Classroom 189
Start Date
22-3-2024 3:00 PM
End Date
22-3-2024 3:15 PM
Decentralizing Utopia: An Interpretive Ethnography of the Cultural Liturgies of the Catholic Worker Movement (Preliminary)
Black Family Plaza Classroom 189
This undergraduate thesis in political science of the Catholic Worker Movement in Los Angeles, California, seeks to contribute to the primitive lexicon of [(post-)modern] anarchist anthropologies and the ongoing discovery of radical alternative utopian communities in real-time. In order to formulate a nuanced, context-situated understanding of religious alternatives to capitalism, secularism, and the secularization of politics from the bottom up, this research employs interpretive (post-colonial) ethnographic methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews to critically examine and constructively evaluate the thick descriptions of the cultural liturgies and emancipatory social practices that orient the vision of the Catholic Worker House and Hippie Kitchen. Moreover, in doing so, I employ the hermeneutic and utopian account of religious communities outlined by David Albertson and Jason Blakely, drawing upon Thomas More's writings. The result is a new form, contribution to the normative discourse on personalism, mutualism, and (spiritually) engaged withdrawal toward the creative construction of an integrative anarchism(s), an alternative subfield within the broader evaluation of (Christian) anarchist social theory, anthropological observation, and communities of imaginative, experimental praxis.