Ecovillages, Intentional Communities, Transition Towns, & Love

Sep 1, 2010
Karen Hansen

Ecovillages can have an earthy appeal. - Earthstarts

Ecovillages, intentional communities, and transition towns are case studies of simple living, powered with local food, clean sustainable energy, and love.

Ecovillages, intentional communities, and transition towns have been taking root and growing world-wide for some time. These communities are powered with local food, distributed generated forms of clean energies, and love. They create local economies by making and providing green products and services; and live simply. Find a list of links to directories of these communities at the bottom of this article.

Robert Gilman (1991), in Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities, defined "An ecovillage as a human-scale, full-featured settlement; in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future."

Multiple Centers of Initiative

Gilman added this important phrase, “multiple centers of initiative,” to his ecovillage definition in 1999. He told Diana Leafe Christian during her interview of him for Ecovillages News, that he further refined his definition to convey that “ecovillages have many different centers of initiative: the village governing body itself, and the many autonomous enterprises, associations, and projects of its residents – together comprise the physical, economic, and social fabric of village life.”

These entities, along with the village’s own governing body, develop, fund, and manage social enterprises that provide everything the village needs; from water, food, and shelter, to agreements, dispute resolution, and other necessary or desirable goods and services.

Intentional Communities for Everyone

Intentional Community per the Fellowship for Intentional Community, is an inclusive term for ecovillages, cohousing communities, residential land trusts, communes, student co-ops, urban housing cooperatives, intentional living, alternative communities, cooperative living, and other projects where people strive together with a common vision.

Ecovillages are usually larger communities at about 500-1000 participants per Gilman, said Christian. Co-housing communities can be just a few persons or more living together in a single house, to more dwellings. Organized neighborhoods are also joining the list of genre of intentional community.

Portland, Oregon's organized neighborhoods are excellent case studies. Each neighborhood claims common space and cooperation as regular meetings and agreements. They have a website and community bulletin board. There is even a tent city for those homeless within Portland limits named Dignity Village.

Transition Towns

Ecovillages and intentional communities are living arrangements by which people consciously wish to live in community with. The transition movement distinguishes itself from these other communities as pooling resources not for cultural reasons, but as a means of sharing dwindling resources.

Transition initiatives are based upon the scientific reports regarding global climate change and peak oil. Transition towns are now referred to Transition Initiatives because the term needed to expand to include more varied geographies. Transition towns and or initiatives bear four key foundations per Rob Hopkins The Transition Handbook p.134:

That life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and that it’s better to plan for it that to be taken by surprise.
That our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil.
That we have to act collectively, and we have to act now.
That by unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological limits of our planet.

Life in an Ecovillage

Diana Leafe Christian is an author who lives by her own words in an ecovillage in North Carolina. She has written a book about this entitled Tour of Earthhaven. She has also authored another book Creating a Life Together and is the publisher of Ecovillage News. Christian travels the world living in these different communities giving workshops facilitating the management of getting people to live together. She gives an extraordinary 400 photo slideshow about how best Ecovillages and intentional communities can be successful.

Diana describes the central motivation behind the development of ecovillages and intentional communities. She says they are groups of persons who want to live purposefully and to live sustainably, simply because it is a good idea and makes common sense.

Groups will use a variety of means to govern themselves, she says, through either consensus, or "sociocracy;" [from the term sociocratic governance, sometimes compared to what is termed, "Dynamic Government"]. “Another form of governance is that by one leader,” delivers Diana, while projecting a picture of Yoda in jest to reverberate a joyful spirit. Christian further explains that the types of economic systems in these communities are usually either independent income or income sharing, and are the means by which people live together sustainably.

Shopping for the Right Ecovillage

Asked to what most be avoided that might lead to a less than satisfactory experience in actually making the leap into an ecovillage or intentional community, Christian remarked, “Magical thinking.” Realistic parameters for which assist in finding an appropriate place at the right community are found in many mediums and pathways as the movement continues to grow. There are great books and magazines on designing and living in these communities.

Many of the communities themselves offer newsletters to look through while many more encapsulate the entire movement. Check out various transition newsgroups around the world such as TransitionUS to find persons to communicate with or other more popular social media such as the "transition us" page on Facebook. Play some good videos from the Fellowship for Intentional Community, or Google or Youtube "ecovillages intentional communities," or "TED Rob Hopkins." Consider taking a tour of communities offered and becoming an actual guest for a period of time that you arrange, and or apply for a work program or apprenticeship at a given community.

Your choices of looking into this type of living are certainly not limited to the United States. In fact, Diana lists great numbers of communities and their country of origin, to show that America has relatively few ecovillages compared to the rest of the world. The majority of these world wide communities are organized grassroots from the bottom-up, while those taking hold in China and Asia are top down types of organizations.See the directories at the bottom of this article for more information on how to access these.

An Organizer in the Development Stage

…Do you want to be an organizer in the development stage, or would you rather have everything in place and up and running with rules in place and urban with manicured landscape close to the city or even near the city center? Clear rules can be seen as a sign of a carefully thought out community that is well managed. Some ecovillages are brand new construction by developers such as Wonderland Hill Development company. The National Co-housing professional directory are featured on actual Co-housing tours.

Of course some prefer a more spontaneous and natural type of atmosphere, and that is also possible, especially if it is your influence written into the foundational by-laws. Consider whether an ideal place to live for you would have what shared practices. Spiritual leaders have guided their members to live together bonding their common spiritual and or philosophical views within their own communities.

Other communities are very rural. They may even offer apprenticeships so that you can learn a craft and take it back home with you to your place of permanence. If you are young and or don't mind roughing it, take up an apprenticeship at The Farm in Tennessee for example, co-founder Albert Bates says you will be taught to build a home out of natural materials for about $5000, “We take the bank out of the equation. We can create elegance at a smaller scale.” If elegance is something you deserve, consider Eco-Net for workshops.

Who do you most enjoy spending down time with? These are the people that will be most likely to be with you when this time is to be had. What types of persons do you want these people to be? Are they vegetarian? Is alcohol in site okay with you? Do they leave the ecovillage to work outside the community, or is it more interesting to have everyone stay, work, and live together all day long.

How far from a major metropolitan area do you want to be? Do you need internet access? There are communities for which you could actually work on site that are worker cooperatives. Breitenbush Retreat and Conference Center is an example of an all age worker-owned cooperative and intentional community on 154 acres of wildlife sanctuary in the Willamette National Forest of the Oregon Cascades.

Getting the Village Community You Want

Each community will usually base its organization around a certain model. Learn what that is. Different models will work with different population densities. Perhaps living in an all age community is what you want, or perhaps you are in a phase of your life where you only wish to be among individuals your age group and an age group for whomever you may be moving into the community with.

Certain communities will have come together for whom members prefer to eat a certain number meals, and the preparation and clean up afterwards, together. You would need to know whether this is something you either could or could not, or would or would not be willing to do.

These above questions are among those to ask yourself in your search to either to continue to ponder, or to get to work on to transition your life over to one of greater simplicity. These search parameters and more are ready for you to work through at the Fellowship for Intentional Community Directory (see link below). This advanced search page is a highly recommended must to abstain from magical thinking on the way to having what could be a truly magical life.