Therapeutic communities and new social movements in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Australia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce prolonged therapeutic community action research and compare research on new social movements in both Latin America and throughout the Australasia Southeast Asia Oceania Region where the later region’s new social movements emerged in large part from Therapeutic Community Outreach. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative method used combined prolonged depth interviews, action research, gathering warm data (N Bateson) and archival research and triangulated the findings. In writing this paper, a connoisseur derived narrative method is used consistent the socio-cultural contexts involved. Findings The characteristics and significant implications and values of these new social movements are outlined. These new social movements are not taking familiar forms with political power as an identifier – rather, a core feature is their transformatory potential in re-forming socio-cultural and socio-psychic patterns of everyday social relating penetrating the micro-structures of society. New forms of social movement are lively in unexpected public places within everyday socio-cultural life. Research limitations/implications The research implications extend to providing processes used in pioneering TCs in Australia in the 1960s. Practical implications Co-action outlined may be a resource for therapeutic communities under threat in parts of the world. Social implications The transformatory potential within new social movements is not political, but socio-cultural and any focus on power relations would miss this shift. Originality/value The action research overviewed in this paper is perhaps a unique example of prolonged engagement in integrated action research on TC processes over more than 60 years.