My books - critical studies of contemporary cultural practices

My books are investigating how innovative culture sometimes turns into ideology which in the end keep us prisoners of our own imaginations. All my books are based on own experiences and participation. They show how  we get enchanted and captured by new promising cultural practices and discourses. In the end we often end with upside-down fantasies about our social reality and  self-identity. By means of historical studies and cultural sociology  I try to  reveal this ideological deception and call for debate and self-reflection.

The title translate to something like  THE QUAGMIRE, THE LIBERALISTS AND THE SAINTS. Published in 1981 the book takes a critical view at Christiania,  a squat occupying a large area of empty military barracks in central Copenhagen. The 750  inhabitants celebrating their tenths anniversary profiled themselves as an alternative  to capitalism and the Danish welfare state. The book investigates how far the central claims of Christiania reflected its social reality. It shows how this child of  youth revolt, hippie culture and social outcasts had removed itself from its original ideals. Instead it was captured by its own romantic and anarchistic ideology leading to increasing social decay. 
 

The title translates to PARADISE SLAVES. The title alludes to the fact that people often become slaves to their own ideological utopian ideas.  Published in 1996  the book takes a critical look at another product of the counter culture of the 1970s called Friedrichshof. This time a counterculture community based close to Vienna in Austria with a big satellite network of small communities located in many Western European metropolis.  This community of several hundred members were a closely knit cult based on common economy and sexuality. They profiled themselves as an artistic community where the members through the community's various  therapeutic devices liberated themselves from "the emotional damages caused by growing up in the nuclear family .  Steeped in Freudian and Reichian ideology the community saw itself as an model for future family and community life. The book shows how the community is caught in a self destructive utopian system. The cult leader and founder Otto Mühl and his core supporters increasingly become more and more megalomaniac while the the foot soldiers loose their self-reliance, self-respect and dignity.  

Published in 2013 this book takes a  critical look at the yoga culture of  not only contemporary society but throughout the history of yoga. It focuses on the role of yoga in society and the kind of  social groups and milieus who are attracted to the symbolic power of yoga.