Little Towns from the Focolare Movement: A Model for Big Cities on the Way to Live Together. A Compared Study of Little Towns in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. A Research Project

SUÁREZ, ANA LOURDES

Atlanta

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Association for Sociology of Religion; 2010

Association for the Sociology of Religion

The paper describes and analyzes little towns from the Focolare Movement (an international organization founded in Italy by Chiara Lubich that is part of the phenomenon of the flourishing of ecclesial movements). It addresses both, the people that get involve and support these experiences; and the structure, the organization, and the social impact of these little towns in the broader society. The paper specifically studies three of the 33 little towns the FM has all over the world. One is near New York. The other two are in South America: in Buenos Aires – Argentina -, and in Sao Paulo – Brazil.