Living Walden Two : B.F. Skinner's behaviorist utopia and experimental communities / Hilke Kuhlmann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kuhlmann, Hilke, 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Utopias--United States.

Utopias.

United States.

Behavior modification--United States.

Behavior modification.

Skinner, B. F. (Burrhus Frederic), 1904-1990. Walden two.

Skinner, B. F.

Communal living--United States.

Communal living.

Physical Description:

xiii, 245 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2005]

Summary:

In Walden Two, behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner describes one of the most controversial fictional utopias of the twentieth century. During the 1960s and 70s, this novel went on to inspire approximately three dozen actual communities, which are entertainingly examined in Hilke Kuhlmann's Living Walden Two. In the novel, behavioral engineers use positive reinforcement in organizing and gently guiding all aspects of society, leaving the rest of the citizens free to lead happy and carefree lives. Among the real-world communities, a recurrent problem in moving past the planning stages was the nearly ubiquitous desire among members to be gentle guides, coupled with strong resistance to being guided. In an insightful and often hilarious narrative, Hilke Kuhlmann explores the dynamics of the communities, with an in-depth examination of the two surviving Skinnerian communities: Comunidad Los Horcones in Mexico, and Twin Oaks in Virginia. Drawing on extensive interviews with the founders and key players in the Walden Two communities, Kuhlmann redefines the criteria for their success by focusing on the tension between utopian blueprints for a new society and communal experiments'

Contents:

Walden Two: a behaviorist utopia

Behavioral psychology and the design of society

Skinner's utopian vision and the issue of control

The road not taken: Skinner, experimental communalism, and token economies

Sunflower House

Lake Village

Walden Three

The early days of Twin Oaks Community

The planner manager system

The communal child care program

The labor credit system

The appeal of the labor credit system for the communities

Movement, or, What communards meant when they said Walden Two

Why people leave

Mexican contexts

Education

The economic structure

Leadership and decision-making

Behaviorism as religion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-240) and index.

ISBN:

0252029623

OCLC:

56494004