Institutional geographies of the New Age movement

This paper is concerned with the production and reproduction of different i nstitutional geographies of the New Age movement. Instead of taking institu tional geographies to be given and fixed co-ordinates in the social field, the paper seeks to understand how they are relational outcomes and effects that require constant upkeep. after characterising the New Age movement, in terms of its central cosmology and visions of transformation, the paper ta kes an actor-network theory (ANT) approach to the understanding of institut ional geographies. Through analysing how New Age knowledges and practices t ravel through time and space, and utilising ANT's concept of 'centres of tr anslation', institutional geographies are taken to be active space-times th at are both enrolled into New Age teachers and practitioners programs of ac tion, and space-times that actively enrol teachers and practitioners. It is argued that the intertwining of different engineered actor-networks in and through these space-times maintains the New Age movement itself and thus e xamining institutional geographies can tell of the movement's shape or topo logy. A controversy over the work of David Icke is explored to reveal how i nstitutional geographies are sites for regulation of what counts as New Age knowledge. Finally, this paper seeks, partially at least, to assess in ter ms of the ANT approach taken, the visions of transformation propounded by t he New Age movement. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.