The international township of Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India: the routinization of charisma in a context of an inner-worldly mystical orientation
Date
1993-09-01
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Masters
Abstract
Sponsored by UNESCO and the Government of India, Auroville was established in
1968 as an experiment in human unity. This thesis is an attempt to illuminate the
cultural orientation of Auroville and. the consequences for routinization of charisma.
Drawing on material collected during an exploratory five month residence in
Auroville in 1986-87, I developed a theoretical framework as the context for carrying
out a field study. Elements of Weber's theoretical work are used to postulate a tension
between the dominant orientation of Aurovilians as inner-worldly mysticism and the
material and social pressures which Weber identified as resulting in routinization of
charisma.
As a participant observer, I carried out research in Auroville between October 1988
and December 1990. Based on the data from interviews, documents, and field notes, I
identified eight cultural themes as characterizing and distinguishing the cultural
orientation of Aurovilians. These themes point to a fundamental resistance of
Aurovilians to processes related to routinization of charisma. To the extent that
organizational elaboration violates their primary values, Aurovilians resist
institutionalization in the form of hierarchical structures, centralization, and the
concentration of power. Yet Aurovilians are able to maintain unity through a network
form of organization which permits unity in diversity. Such a network form of
organization is different from organizational developments as Weber characterized them
in the routinization of charisma.
The cultural themes are related to a fundamental dilemma of institutionalization:
spontaneity versus structure. Using 0'Dea's (1961, 1966) operationalization of this
fundamental dilemma into five related dilemmas, I show that Aurovilians have
preserved and returned to spontaneity through their resisting emergent and potentially
transforming forms of social control which make up the processes Weber identified as
inherent in routinization of charisma.
I conclude that the basic orientation of Aurovilians involves effective resistance to
routinization. As value-centred and experientially-based, their orientation can be
characterized as inner-worldly mystical, and viewed as an attempt to live out an inwardly
experienced reality. Several implications follow from this research. First, although
Weber in effect ignored inner worldly-mysticism as a significant and actual orientation,
the orientation of Aurovilians is demonstrated to be an enduring instance of innerworldly
mysticism. Second, to the extent that Aurovilians have resisted and continue
to resist routinization, inner-worldly mysticism is a useful theoretical construct for
analyzing.responses to and dilemmas associated with routinization of charisma. Third,
Robertson's (1978) inner-worldly mysticism as an ideal type can be modified to include
the feature of sensitivity toward and resistance to objectification, which poses the threat
of alienation from the very forms intended to express and carry a sense of reality.
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Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Sociology
Program
Sociology