Based on a study of the commune movement in Britain, this 1976 book is
an attempt to explore the ability of sociology to understand the world
of the 'alternative society' and to examine the implications of the
success and failure of communal projects for fundamental sociological
theories about the nature of social solidarity and cohesion. It takes
issue with a number of studies in this field, particularly those based
on American utopian communities. It raises questions about the nature of
friendship in capitalist societies and about the extent to which the
social scientist can ever really hope to know the world of private life.
The book argues that communes face insuperable obstacles in realising
their aspirations within capitalist societies and that in the face of
these obstacles they tend either to disintegrate or to become as
authoritarian and as mystified as the societies from which they are
trying to escape.