This paper introduces the concept of `working utopias' (WUs) and explores their relation to social movements. WUs are used in a variety of ways by social movements, it is argued, and they play a central role in the reproduction and advancement of movements. They reproduce the movement habitus and illusio, extend and reproduce networks, generate new forms of knowledge and practice, and serve, to some extent at least, as `proof' of the validity of movement claims. Two utopias from within radical mental health movements are focused upon in the paper: the Kingsley Hall therapeutic community and the `Trieste experiment'. The significance of these working utopias is explored by way of interviews with movement activists who have been involved with them in various ways.
Bachelard, G. 1984. The New Scientific Spirit. Boston: Beacon.
2.
Bagguley, P.1995. `Protest, Poverty and Power: A Case Study of the Anti-Poll Tax Movement'. Sociological Review43:693-719.
3.
Banks, J. 1972. The Sociology of Social Movements. London: Macmillan.
4.
Barnes, M. and Berke, J. 1973. Mary Barnes. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
5.
Beck, U. 1992. Risk Society. London: Sage.
6.
Bourdieu, P. 1998. Practical Reason. Cambridge: Polity.
7.
Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J-C. 1996. Reproduction. London: Sage.
8.
Bourne, H.1985. `Misunderstanding the Italian Experience', British Journal of Psychiatry (Correspondence)147:452.
9.
Cameron, J. , Laing, R. and McGhie, A.1955. `Patient and Nurse'. The Lancet2.
10.
Cooper, D. 1967. Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry. London: Tavistock.
11.
Crossley, N.1998a. `R. D. Laing and the British Anti-Psychiatry Movement: A Socio-Historical Analysis'. Social Science and Medicine47:877-889.
12.
Crossley, N.1998b. `Transforming the Mental Health Field'. Sociology of Health and Illness20:458-488.
13.
Crossley, N.1999a. `Fish, Field, Habitus and Madness'. In British Journal of Sociology (forthcoming).
14.
Crossley, N. 1999b. `Repertoire Appropriation and Diversity in (Anti)Psychiatric Struggles'. Conference proceedings for Alternative Futures and Popular Protest (Vol. 1), Manchester Metropolitan University.
De Girolamo, G.1985. `Misunderstanding the Italian Experience'. British Journal of Psychiatry (Correspondence)147:451-452.
17.
Dewey, J. 1988. Human Nature and Conduct. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
18.
Donnelly, M. 1992. The Politics of Mental Health in Italy. London: Tavistock.
19.
Eyerman, R. and Jamison, A. 1991. Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach. Cambridge: Polity.
20.
Feree, M. 1992. `The Political Context of Rationality: Rational Choice Theory and Resource Mobilisation', pp. 29-52 in A. Maurice and C. McClurg Mueller (eds.), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press.
21.
Foucault, M. 1974. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock.
22.
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity.
23.
Goffman, E. 1961. Asylums. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
24.
Habermas, J. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Polity.
25.
Hanvey, C.1978. `Italy and the Rise of Democratic Psychiatry'. Community Care, 25October:22-24.
26.
Heptinstall, D.1984. `Psichiatria Democratica: Italy's Revolution in Caring for the Mentally Ill'. Community Care, 1March:17-19.
27.
Husserl, E. 1972. Experience and Judgement. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
28.
Husserl, E. 1989. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy: Second Book. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
29.
Husserl, E. 1991. Cartesian Meditations. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
30.
Johnson, H. and Klandermans, B. (eds.) 1995. Social Movements and Culture. London: UCL.
31.
Jones, K. and Poletti, A.1985. `Understanding the Italian Experience'. British Journal of Psychiatry146:341-347.
32.
Jones, K. and Poletti, A.1986. `The “Italian Experience” Reconsidered'. British Journal of Psychiatry148:144-150.
33.
Lacey, R.1984. `Where Have All the Patients Gone?'. The Guardian, 4 July.
34.
Laing, A. 1997. R. D. Laing: A Life. London: Harmondsworth.
35.
McAdam, O.1983. `Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency'. American Sociological Review48:735-754.
36.
McAdam, O.1989. `The Biographical Consequences of Activism'. American Sociological Review54:744-760.
37.
McCarthy, J. and Zald, M.1977. `Resource Mobilisation and Social Movements: A Partial Theory'. American Journal of Sociology82:212-241.
38.
Melucci, A. 1986. Nomads of the Present. London: Radius.
39.
Melucci, A. 1996. Challenging Codes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40.
Mouzelis, N.1971. `On Total Institutions'. Sociology5:113-120.
41.
Olson, M. 1971. The Logics of Collective Action. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
42.
Ramon, S.1982. `The Italian Job'. Social Work Today14:14 December, 5.
43.
Ramon, S.1985. `The Italian Experience'. British Journal of Psychiatry (Correspondence), 147:452.
44.
Schatzman, M. 1969. `Madness and Morals', pp. 290-313 in J. Berke, Counter-Culture. London: Fire Books.
45.
Scott, A. 1990. Ideology and the New Social Movements. London: Unwin Hyman.
46.
Scull, A. 1993. The Most Solitary of Afflications. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
47.
Tansella, M.1985. `Misunderstanding the Italian Experience'. British Journal of Psychiatry (Correspondence)147:450-451.
48.
Tarrow, S. 1998. Power in Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
49.
Tilly, C. 1995. `Contentious Repertoires in Great Britain, 1758-1834', pp. 15-42 in M. Traugott (ed.), Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action. London: Duke University Press.
50.
Traugott, M. 1995. Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action. London: Duke University Press.
51.
Zald, M. and Ash, R.1966. `Social Movement Organisations: Growth, Decay and Change'. Social Forces44:327-340.
