Researchers like Ana Margarida Esteves have looked at the inclusion/exclusion drivers of commoning projects and here she brings a study on how the Tamera ecovillage, originally attracting German counter-cultural expats, originally was not connected to the local context but has recently undertaken efforts to increase their local rootedness. As she writes: “In my article I also show how Tamera is overcoming that segregationalism through cultural mediation, institutionalization of dialogue and a special fund to support the participation of Portuguese people in their engagements. They are also becoming a very significant player in the Portuguese anti-fracking and anti-oil drilling movement. They are also participating in feminist and pro-Palestinian circles.”

The French researcher Genevieve Fontaine is looking into the commons as ‘commons of capabilities’ and has added 3 extra criteria to add to the 8 criterias of commons governance proposed by Ostrom. In effect, Genevieve Fontaine is looking at a synthesis between the commons and the capabilities approach. These and other avenues show that the inclusion agenda is coming to the attention of commoners and commons-researchers.

Abstract

This article sheds light on the exclusionary dynamics that emerge when the construction of commons-based alternative political ecologies does not take political economy considerations into account. It analyses the relationship between Tamera – Healing Biotope I, and the ecosystem, population and institutions of the region of southwestern Alentejo, Portugal, where this ecovillage is located. Tamera is based on a prefigurative process of “commoning”, transplanted from Central European counter-culture, which created a “borderland” that spatially segregates and at the same time creates a point of contact between two contrasting cultural, ecological and socio-economic realities. However, maintaining the “borderland” granted the community access to the resources needed to develop its vision, while countering existing regulations, although eventually involving the state in the development of a new regulatory framework. Since the mid- 2000s, Tamera has been engaging in cultural dialogue with the local population, with the support of the municipality. The analysis raises the question of how to develop regulatory and financial instruments that support ecovillages in promoting inclusive strategies of economic sustainability, integrating them in place-based dynamics of regional development. The specificities of their biophysical and social processes must be taken into account, as well as their vocation as “testfields” for sustainability.

Cultural dialogue and institutional mediation as antidotes to socioeconomic segregation in Ecovillage devel… shared by the P2P Foundation on Scribd

Published by the University of Arizona Journal of Political Ecology

Photo by Laura Pazo

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Egalitarian communities constitute a more advanced version of experimenting with alternative economy than ecovillages. They share labor, land, and resources according to one’s needs and everyone contributes in a chosen way. In Kommune Niederkaufungen, one usually needs to integrate into one of the work collectives to be accepted. Members can spend money according to their needs but in Acorn community there is a monthly pocket money to cover extra expenses such as alcohol or cigarettes, whereas in Niederkaufungen expenses of above 150 Euros need to be announced. Both communities operate enterprises. In Kommune Niederkaufungen, some members are employed outside. In Acorn community, weekly 42-hour work contribution is required but each member decides what activities to do and no checks are in place.

Basic needs

In both communities where I conducted interviews raising children is considered to be a work contribution and is valued in the same way as activities that earn money. Recognition for care and reproductive work is part of the feminist philosophy of these communes and their pursuit of egalitarianism. In this way parents do not need to choose between making a living or raising children. Since work arrangement is quite flexible and many members work in the same place where they live (in Acorn community this is the case for majority of activities), it is easier to combine work with child care. Also non-parents can choose to participate in child care as a work contribution.

Thanks to these conditions parents can respond to a child’s needs without the stress of economic survival. The first three years of life define emotional development and negligence can lead to trauma and behavioural or emotional disorders. Research examining physiology and theories of child development underline the need for constant availability of an adult and touch in early childhood (see articles by such authors as Darcia Narvaez and Jean Liedloff). This is more difficult to organize in the mainstream society.

Learning environment

Communes provide an environment that makes it easier to pursue homeschooling or unschooling because of the close availability of many adults with diverse skills and knowledge. For example, a member of East Wind, a commune in Missouri, teaches French to one of the children by taking a walk and talking to them in this language. Children in Kommune Niederkaufungen go to school, either a public one in their neighborhood or an alternative school in the city center. However, they can tap on a vast expertise at home having access to many adults with diverse knowledge. (In Niederkaufungen, some members work in education).

Community skills and multi-age group

Children need multiple attachments, according to Peter Gray, and this is how children have been raised in indigenous communities.1 In the book “Free to Learn,” Peter Gray points to the advantages of being part of a multi-age group and engaging in free play with other children for learning and emotional development. Furthermore, he elaborates on the importance of unstructured play time with other children. Citing survey date, he mentions that one of the main obstacles for limiting such free activities with children in the neighborhood is the concern for safety. Parents prefer to occupy children with extracurricular activities because they are sure that they are taken care of. In a commune, it is easier to establish conditions for children to have free play. The children and their parents know each other and there are many trusted adults around so that children can play in safety.

Peter Gray shows that children learn skills that they observe are crucial in the adults’ world by playing. Growing up in an environment where a lot of discussions and decision-making takes place, this may encourage them to develop related skills. One of the members of Kommune Niederkaufungen said that there is a practice of exercising patience and letting someone express oneself in conflicts, which contrasts with the way his friends treated each other in his life before joining commune. This may also be an example for children.

Disputes among parents

Living in a commune requires a lot more discussions and collective decision-making than living an individualized life. For example, what parents allow to their children may affect other children more directly than in mainstream living. It can become a source of conflict. A father left the commune Niederkaufungen because of the decision of other parents to have satellite television. It was impossible to isolate this child from mainstream media influence. In this commune, at least four people needed to make a veto to block community decision. Parents in this commune gather regularly to talk about their children.

The impact on the society

Certainly the way children are raised shapes their personalities. Aggregated, it results in the human relations and values of society. Jean Liedloff considers touch deprivation in early infancy to be responsible for insatiable wants and searching for solace in consumerism. Narvaez asks what impact depriving babies of their basic human needs will have on the entire society. Peter Gray observes that inter-age education contributes to the development of empathy and compassion. Communities provide conditions to raise emotionally healthy and cooperative individuals. Hopefully, they will inspire mainstream society to create conditions that resemble communal child care.

Articles on Acorn community

Gajewska, Katarzyna (September 2016): Egalitarian alternative to the US mainstream: study of Acorn community in Virginia, US. Bronislaw Magazine and reposted on PostGrowth.org.

Gajewska, Katarzyna (21 July 2016): An intentional egalitarian community as a small-scale implementation of Post-Capitalism. P2P Foundation Blog.

Gajewska, Katarzyna (10 January 2016): Case study: Creating use value while making a living in egalitarian communities. P2P Foundation Blog.

Gajewska, Katarzyna (27 December 2014): An intentional egalitarian community as a small-scale implementation of postcapitalist, peer production model of economy. Part I : Work as a spontanous, voluntary contribution. P2P Foundation Blog.

Katarzyna Gajewska, PhD, is an independent scholar and futurist writer (Facebook: Katarzyna Gajewska – Independent Scholar). She has been publishing on alternative economy, non-digital peer production, universal basic income and collective autonomy since 2013 and is mainly interested in psychological and emotional aspects of transition to a postcapitalist society.

You can support Katarzyna’s independent research and writing here.

Originally published on Postgrowth.org

Photo by edtrigger

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This post is part of our series of articles on the Urban Commons sourced from the Green European Journal Editorial Board. These were published as part of Volume 16 “Talk of the Town: Exploring the City in Europe”. In this instalment, Pablo Servigne, an agronomist and expert in ecology, behaviour and evolution of social insects, examines the role of the city on the midst of a convergence of ecological and social crises.

Cities around the world today face a whole host of grave threats: from pollution to climate change, resource scarcity to overpopulation, and many more. Growing awareness of this has led to a proliferation of ‘solutions’ such as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’, ‘smart’, ‘resilient’, ‘zero-carbon’ projects, as well as ‘eco-neighbourhoods’. But how effective can these initiatives hope to be, in light of the scale of the problems faced? Our vision of the future is in dire need of being injected with a good dose of realism. The vision of a ‘linear’ urban future is in effect fed by the imagery of abundance forged during post-war reconstruction. Yet the conditions of such prosperity are no longer in place. A closer look at the principal threats facing cities can serve as a base from which to devise potential future scenarios. By stimulating our imagination, it is hoped that this conceptual framework will help us design urban policies which are more credible and less unsustainable than those we have witnessed so far.

Cities under threat

The risks of global warming are well known. According to the UN, more than 60 per cent of cities with populations of over 750,000 are exposed to at least one major risk. One of the latest reports from the IPCC describes one major risk, amongst others – of climate and environmental shocks breaking down the industrial food systems that feed most European towns. [1] 

Resource shortages (metals, water, wood, energy, etc) also fall within these major threats. In fact, there is nothing simpler than seriously disrupting a city: it’s merely a matter of blocking its food and energy supplies. These are amongst the worst threats a city can face, because the social, economic and then political effects are felt almost immediately (within a matter of days). Hence the prioritisation of food security by all governments over the centuries.

Serious threats are also posed by certain types of pollution. As well as the heavy metals and organic compounds polluting the soil, and aerosols already rendering certain towns unliveable, there is the risk of major industrial accidents forcing entire urban populations to be evacuated. Cities must learn to anticipate all this, to absorb the shocks, to recover, and to learn from these events, most of which are already happening in certain parts of the world. Simply to achieve this, they need resources, energy and a degree of social order, which are increasingly hard to guarantee.

In fact, all these threats can be considered to come from outside the city (external threats). But there is another equally serious, and less well known, type of threat: internal threats. These arise mainly from vulnerable infrastructure and social conflict. It is well-known to historians and archaeologists that a town’s capacity to grow and thrive depends on its capacity to safeguard good communication, transport, and distribution networks. Today, much of the transport, electricity, and water infrastructure in OECD countries is over 50 years old (over 100 years old, in some cases), and is already operating well beyond maximum capacity. [2] The extent of its interconnection, complexity, and homogeneity, and the speed of movement of the components of city life, have also increased the vulnerability of this infrastructure. It is thus also easily destabilised by one-off events such as floods, hurricanes, and terrorist attacks.

When, following the rise in the price of diesel in the year 2000, 150 striking lorry drivers blocked major fuel depots in the UK, the consequences rapidly made themselves felt: “Just four days after the start of the strike, most of the country’s refineries had ceased operation, forcing the government to take steps to protect the remaining reserves. The following day, people rushed into shops and supermarkets to stock up on food. One day later, 90% of filling stations had stopped serving, and the NHS [National Health Service] started to cancel elective surgery. Royal Mail deliveries stopped, and schools in many towns and villages closed their doors. Major supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s introduced rationing, and the government called in the army to escort convoys of vital goods. In the end, public pressure led the strikers to end their action”. [3]

In the cities of industrialised countries – including, need we add, Europe – it is highly likely that we will reach ‘peak urbanisation’ over the next decade.

The social order of a city can falter rapidly, even when networks don’t break down. All it takes is an economic or political crisis, leading to a collapse of industrial activity, massive job losses, housing crises, the bursting of a speculation bubble, riots, community or class conflicts, terrorist acts, and so on. These events have become frequent because of the significant increase in economic and social inequality within countries, [4] and even within cities. [5] This is nothing new, but seems to have been forgotten; archaeology shows us that the economic and political elites of great civilisations have often caused the inexorable degradation of their environment, due to the pressure they put on people and natural ecosystems. [6]

Last, but not least, all these threats are interdependent, and nowadays operate at a globalised level. Large, homogeneous, fast-moving, deeply interconnected international networks have – paradoxically – become more resistant to small disturbances, but more vulnerable to major disruptions, which, when they occur, can trigger a domino effect throughout the system, leading to collapse. [7] Scientists speak of a new kind of risk: the ‘systemic global risk’ inherent in these extensive complex networks, and, as major nodes in these global networks, cities are very exposed to these risks.

Scenarios for the Future: Forwarned is forearmed

With that in mind, four scenarios can be envisaged. The aim is not to alarm, nor to predict the future, but to stimulate the imagination and test the effects of these threats against possible futures. These scenarios are to be taken as signposts, pathways or stages, like the points of a compass. They are archetypes for the future, to help illustrate trends and provide insight into what might lie ahead. The division into four scenarios arises from two forward-looking works: Future Scenarios by David Holmgren, [8] and Resilient Cities, by architects and planners Newman, Beatley and Boyer. [9] The first work describes the possible trajectories in relation to peak oil and climate change.

If climate change has a gradual effect (providing enough room for manoeuvre to transform society), there are two possible scenarios: a ‘green tech’ transition, which, if resources decline slowly, could be relatively comfortable, or a radical and rapid change, known as ‘earth stewardship’, in the case of a brutally rapid decline in energy resources. By contrast, if climate change has rapid and violent effects, society will tip into a ‘brown tech’ future, where the powers that be would muster all their force to maintain ‘business as usual’. Or, even worse, society could completely collapse – the ‘lifeboat’ scenario – if these catastrophes coincided with a rapid loss of resources.

The second publication focuses exclusively on the end of oil, and analysing its effects on cities. It explores the following question: knowing that cities are completely dependent on oil, and have a massive carbon footprint, what would be the consequences for modern industrial cities of the end of the oil age? Two areas in particular are explored: transport and food security. The authors describe four scenarios, similar to those of Holmgren: the resilient city (corresponding to the ‘green tech’ scenario), the divided city (‘brown tech’ scenario), the ruralised city (‘earth stewardship’ scenario), and the collapsed city (‘lifeboat’ scenario).

However, both of these forward-looking publications only consider scenarios based on external threats (climate and oil), without taking account of internal threats. The latter have been explicitely included in the following proposed synthesis. [10]

The ecotechnical city

If the impact of global warming turns out to be gradual, and an ‘energy descent’ [11] can be managed, society can adopt ‘green’ technologies, ensure a successful transition, and work towards distributed renewable energy systems, without conflict or disasters. This would lead to a resurgence in regional, rural economies, more sustainable agriculture, more horizontal political systems, and more compact cities that prioritise public transport and the local economy. A balance would be found between reducing consumption and slowing economic growth, thanks to energy efficiency technology and a relocalisation of the economy. However, it is only possible for a city to take this route if it already has a resilient, well-maintained infrastructure, and if it avoids major political, economic and social upheavals. This is clearly the most desirable scenario in terms of maintaining the living standards and security that our democratic societies rely on. To sum up, in the absence of significant obstacles, even in the context of an energy descent, an efficient transition is still possible. The city can prepare, slowly but surely, for the ‘storms’ ahead.

The ecovillage city

A rapid decline in resources, including oil and natural gas, could trigger a crisis that would bring the world economy to its knees. This global collapse could create political instability, which would in turn lead to serious social problems, but also, paradoxically, to an end of greenhouse gas emissions. Local resilient communities would then emerge in some rural areas (following a massive rural exodus). This would be achieved through agro-ecology and permaculture techniques, and above all by sustaining their capacity for local democracy. It is possible that the major megalopolises would still contain rich, private, gated neighbourhoods, by developing urban agriculture within suburban gardens. In this scenario, no-one believes civilisation can be preserved as it stands; people will have moved on, to work for something radically different. Cities would return to being semi-rural, meeting many of their food and energy needs very locally, along the lines of self-sufficient medieval towns. Peri-urban belts would be made up of ecovillages, supplying the town and recycling waste, much like the Parisian market gardeners of the 19th century. However, this ‘radical resilience’ policy will only be practicable if massive disasters (hurricanes, uprisings, revolutions, etc.), that could destabilise the political and social order are neither too intense nor too frequent. If they do occur, the organisation of the city could change radically, whilst retaining a chance of avoiding breakdown and chaos, and maintaining a semblance of democracy, albeit at increasingly local levels. In this scenario, the city is instantly transformed, yet without being wiped out by the ‘storms’.

The enclave city

A slow decline in energy supply could leave influential power structures in place, thus thwarting any chance of real transformation. The combination of an authoritarian state and greedy private business would foster an extraction industry rush for non-renewable resources, with predictably catastrophic consequences. But then the climate and environmental crises would be so overwhelming that all of society’s energy and resources would be needed to keep the ship afloat, due to policies that are centralised, securitised, militarised, and inegalitarian. The city would splinter; the rich, cocooned in their safe neighbourhoods, would maintain access to increasingly expensive supplies, protecting themselves from climatic variations with new technology. The poorest in society would be left to their own devices in semi-rural areas (with survival vegetable plots providing resilience), or even shanty towns, with less and less reliable access to resources. In this scenario, the economic elite (the rich) and political elite (the government), in their opulent enclaves, would use violence and fear to maintain their privilege. These elites would have no choice than to bring in ever more oppressive laws. Those in the most precarious situations would gradually lose the means to protect themselves from environmental and social disasters, and certain districts (crowded with arriving migrants) would become shanty towns, and police no-go areas. Political cohesion, and thus democracy, would be the first victims, leaving the field open for the expansion of the private sector and its irresistible machine for generating ever more privilege and social division – in other words, social chaos. The city crumbles, the rich ‘manage’ the crisis, everyone else endures it, and the former control the latter by increasingly undemocratic means.

The collapsed city

If rapid economic and political collapse (the Ecovillage scenario) is compounded by severe environmental and climate crises, it is too late to take the resilience route; collapse is inevitable. History shows that a lack of preparation combined with a succession of various disasters will end up getting the better of any city. There is no lack of examples of dead cities, such as Ephesus, the port and second largest town in the Roman Empire, abandoned in around the year 1,000 when the river dried up after all the trees on the surrounding hills had been felled. War, illness, and famine have always cleared cities of their inhabitants, and this can still happen. In Syria and Libya, armed conflict has devastated entire towns, which have still not recovered. When the shock is too brutal, some of the urban population flee, and those who cannot, stay, prey to shortages and chaos. Epidemics and/or conflict can reduce social life to clans controlled by local warlords. Some small population clusters would survive in exceptionally favourable conditions (such as a healthy river, stable damn, fertile fields, or an isolated monastery). These small islands (Holmgren’s ‘lifeboats’) would be humanity’s only chance to find a way through a dark period and retain the hope of renaissance in a few decades, or centuries. In this scenario, unpredictable and irreversible domino effects lead to the rapid breakdown of the city.

A rupture in our imagination

This four-scenario compass provides us with a new way of looking at the future. It enables us to see more clearly what is at stake: from a hardening of class relations, de-industrialisation of towns, urban exodus, and infrastructure collapse to the development of green technologies. Even if the details of these trajectories are not specified, global trends are clear: towards catastrophes, or what some might term collapse. These narratives differ from the more common forecasts, based on myths around technological progress, and luring us with a future ever more connected to the virtual, and thus in the end disconnected from the natural. But we have clearly run up against the limits of this approach (and of earth-system science), and now we must prepare for a future of rupture and interruption.

In the cities of industrialised countries – including, need we add, Europe – it is highly likely that we will reach ‘peak urbanisation’ over the next decade. In other words, we cannot carry on in this ultra-urban direction. The future of industrial towns will more likely be one of depopulation, reconnection with green belts and the countryside, an overdue reduction in social inequality, and the re-localisation of the economy. It is up to us to tip the balance in favour of a particular scenario.

Even if the precise nature of these scenarios is not clear, we can be sure that the urban future has to be resilient. [12] Cities will have to weather various kinds of ‘storms’, some with more ease than others, and this will radically transform how Europeans design and inhabit their cities. Anticipating these ‘storms’ today, feeling and imagining them, equips us to be prepared, and thus avert disaster.

This is a revised version of an article that was first published on barricade.be.

• 1. P. Servigne (2017). Nourrir l’Europe en temps de crise. Vers de systèmes alimentaires résilients, Babel.
• 2. I. Goldin & M. Mariathasan, (2014). The butterfly defect: How globalization creates systemic risks, and what to do about it. Princeton University Press, p.101.
• 3. P. Servigne & R. Stevens (2015), Comment tout peut s’effondrer. Petit manuel de collapsologie à l’usage des générations présentes, Seuil, p. 116.
• 4. R. Wilkinson, & K. Pickett (2009). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, Allen Lane.
• 5. O. Razemon (2016) Comment la France a tué ses villes, Rue de l’échiquier.
• 6. For example, the salinisation of land during the third millennium BCE in Mesapotamia, or, today, the living stands of rich Europeans destroying
  tropical forests. See N. B. Grimm, et al. (2008). Global change and the ecology of cities, Science, n°319, pp. 756-760.
• 7. P. Servigne & R. Stevens (2015), op. cit.
• 8. D. Holmgren (2009), Future scenarios, How communities can adapt to peak oil and climate change, Green Books
• 9. P. Newman et al. (2009) Resilient cities. Responding to peak oil and climate change, Island Press.
• 10. Here, armed conflict is not included in external threats, and civil war not included in internal threats.
• 11. In the context of a post-peak oil transition, this refers to the shift away from an increasing use of energy to a reduction.
  https://www.transitionculture.org/essential-info/what-is-energy-descent.
• 12. A. Sinaï et al. Petit traité de résilience locale, 2015, Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer.

The Green European Journal, published by the European Green Foundation, has published a very interesting special issue focusing on the urban commons, which we want to specially honour and support by bringing individual attention to several of its contributions. This is our 2nd article in the series. It’s a landmark special issue that warrants reading it in full.

The post Gathering Storms: Forecasting the Future of Cities appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Dear friends,

We hope by now you have seen our first invitation to join the 2018 GEN Europe Conference: The Wisdom of Conscious Communities. In the inspiring surroundings of Lilleoru, Estonia, hundreds of representatives of communities – as well as those curious to learn more about our way of life – will come together to share their wisdom, to network, to dream new projects and create lasting bonds. We hope to see you there!

As every year, the conference is a co-created event. That means that absolutely everyone is warmly invited to take this special opportunity to share their gifts, be it a hands-on bioconstruction workshop, an ecstatic dance session, a forum for debate…

This year the thread that will weave together the many strands of this exciting gathering is our theme: The Wisdom of Conscious Communities. We know that ecovillages are some of the richest veins of creativity, practical knowledge, and spiritual wisdom in the world today, so we invite you to consider how your workshop could really bring out this theme. But you don’t need to be an ecovillager to give a workshop!

The programme will also have a strong connection to the four dimensions of sustainability – the social, economic, ecological and cultural – so consider how what you can offer links to one of these dimensions.

Ready to submit your workshop? Fill in the form now!

The deadline for submitting workshops is April 1st. Please be prompt in submitting your workshop – we cannot guarantee a place for everyone in the programme!

Ecovillage Sustainable Technology Expo – ESTExpo

As in previous years, we also invite members of ecovillages to bring, and/or give a presentation or a workshop about technologies from their communities that they are using to tackle local or global problems. Last year we saw a biogas digester, solar charging station, home-built wind turbine, and more! If you would like to join E.S.T.Expo please fill this form as well.

What else can I do?

If, like us, you can’t wait for July, there’s plenty of ways to get involved in the meantime! Besides planning a workshop, you can also…

• Spread the word: the conference is for everyone – from community members, to those who have never visited an ecovillage, but are curious about different ways of living and caring for one another and the planet. So let’s spread the word as far as possible – why not share one of our graphics or posts on social media?

• Use your connections: do you know of a large event happening in your country where people might be interested to hear about the conference? Do you have connections with newspapers, magazines, blogs or websites who would publish an interview or article? Contact us and find out how we can connect!

• Prepare for Meet the Ecovillages: after the success of last year’s Meet the Ecovillages event (check out a little video taster here), we hope this year to have an even richer taste of ecovillage life from across Europe. Will you bring produce from your community, a dance, a play, an art exhibition? Start thinking about how you can showcase your community now.

• Get ready for the eco-market: we know ecovillagers are a talented group of makers, craftspeople, writers, chefs… so once again we’ll be running the daily eco-market, a chance to gift, sell, buy or trade handmade items, books or information material from your ecovillage. What will you bring?

Warm regards,

Mariana, Ave, and the GEN and Lilleoru conference teams

PS: if there’s one thing you can do right now: forward this message to your community and your networks – let’s tap into the wisdom of conscious communities!

You can also invite your friends on Facebook.

The post Call for workshops: An invitation to co-create the European Ecovillage Conference appeared first on P2P Foundation.

From TedX: Smart house inside of the dumb neighborhood does not make sense! James explains in his talk how to build regenerative communities that produce more organic food, clean water, renewable energy and mitigate waste.

James Ehrlich is the Founder of ReGen Villages, a Stanford University spin-off company, which aims to develop the “Tesla of Ecovillages“ with an infrastructure that creates a surplus energy, water, and organic food. As a Senior Technologist at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at Opus Novum consortium at NASA Ames Research Center and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab at the Center for Design Research he is indeed an expert in the area of sustainable development.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

The post James Ehrlich on the Self-Sustaining ReGen Villages appeared first on P2P Foundation.

“Decades after communes sprang into the public consciousness promoting the ideals of peace, love, and understanding, communities across the country report that interest from potential members is again surging. Cheaper prices tell part of the story. But so does a desire for a simpler, more unplugged lifestyle.

The Fellowship for Intentional Community, a networking and support group for the establishments, says their numbers in the U.S. increased by about 300% from 1990 to 2010 (its most recent data).

‘There are a lot of people who are pretty disappointed with the way the American Dream worked out. People feel isolated,’ says Sonoma County, CA–based Realtor Cassandra Ferrera, who specializes in helping clients seeking sites for new establishments. ‘These intentional communities are like social experiments to find a better way to live.’

Sure, there’s still plenty of patchouli and dreadlocks. But members regularly drive to work or to the movies, surf the web, and enroll their children in public schools.

‘[These] are not your mama’s communes,’ Ferrera says. ‘They’re just going to keep growing as a market niche.’

Business has been so good the past few years at Green Key Real Estate that Ferrera has had to hire new staffers and closes on several group properties annually. The numbers might be higher, she says, if it weren’t for the legal complications of group ownership, and zoning and sanitation restrictions in many towns that limit the number of people who can live on the same plot.

The classic commune: No rent, no mortgage, no outside job

When people think of the new age of communes, egalitarian communes such as Twin Oaks often come to mind. About 100 members live on the peaceful, 452-acre settlement in rural Virginia, nestled between Richmond and Charlottesville. Everyone is required to work 42 hours a week. This can range from labor in one of the businesses on the property, such as making tofu or hammocks, or cooking meals for the group.

In exchange for their labor, residents never have to worry about having a roof over their heads, enough food to eat, or clothes on their backs—all of these are covered. They also get health insurance and a stipend of $102 a month to buy a few things for themselves or go out to dinner.

‘I wanted that simple life,’ says Tom Freeman, 52, who sells tofu made at Twin Oaks to health food stores like Whole Foods along the East Coast. ‘I live on a hippie commune, because I don’t have to stress about [anything].’

The former lab technician joined the commune 20 years ago after visiting some college friends there. He was enchanted by seeing members growing organic vegetables, milking cows, and making their own cheese.

He now lives in an 18-bedroom house with the same number of inhabitants, including his 13-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son. (He met his ex-wife at the commune.) Everyone, including children, receive their own bedroom within the compound’s seven houses. There is also a communal kitchen, a community center, and a children’s building—and perks like a swimming pond, volleyball court, and sauna.

‘The stress of a maintaining a household, buying a car, and just living life is very hard,” Freeman says. So “when the economy’s bad, we tend to get a lot of interest.’

Cheap rent and a light footprint on Earth

Members of eco-villages focus on reducing their carbon footprint. There’s no free room and board in most of these groups—residents have external jobs and don’t share finances. But the green emphasis is helping make these communities ever more popular, says Lois Arkin, founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Eco-Village.

About 40 members live in individual apartments at the Los Angeles Eco-Village in three buildings spread across two city blocks. They grow much of their own produce, eat less meat, and drive fewer gas guzzlers. Many homes and individual units are also outfitted with solar panels and greywater systems.

Their environmentalism is rewarded with very cheap rents on their studios to two-bedroom abodes—which range from just $500 to $1,200 a month. (That’s in L.A., where the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city was $1,950 in August, according to Apartment List.) Arkin says she receives double the number of inquiries than she did just three years ago.

The inexpensive housing is possible because the buildings are like group-owned co-ops, and the land they rest on is owned by a community trust.

On the other side of the country, demand is also up at the Ecovillage at Ithaca, in upstate New York. The 25-year-old community has grown to about 240 residents spread over three neighborhoods. The latest neighborhood was completed in late 2015 with 25 single-family homes and a 15-unit apartment building.”

The full article can be found here.

Photo by arievergreen

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Assimilation seems to be a theme of their project. They integrate work and daily life. They bring together practitioners, fans, and supporters. They involve their extended communities, including local government. Their most recent innovation, a network of companies called the Borderland, aims to integrate their ecovillage with the economies of  those of the surrounding valleys.

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Extracted from: http://www.torri-superiore.org/chisiamo/

Who we are

Torri Superiore Cultural Association was founded in 1989 with the social aim to restore and repopulate the medieval village in a state of neglect, to support the creation of a living community, and to contribute to the creation of an Ecovillage and an open cultural center to the public

L ‘Association has about 30 members, both resident and non-resident, and follows principles of sustainability, cooperation and solidarity. The Association has no political positions, ideological or religious.

The general objectives of the ‘Association and ecovillage, including ecotourism programs, are decided by the members, which meets twice a year (April and November). The Executive Council, composed of nine members elected every two years between residents and non-residents, normally meets every two or three months.

Extracted from: http://www.torri-superiore.org/restauro-del-borgo/(translated)

The Village Restoration

During the twentieth century, the medieval village of Torri Superiore was gradually abandoned by all the inhabitants, falling prey to decay and slowly turning into a ghost town.

Over the following years, a detailed study of the structure of buildings has led to the development of a restoration project that balances the complex for public use parts and those for private use.

For the management of construction sites they have been used small local companies with the constant support of the Association members and residents, and with the generous contribution of volunteer groups from around the world.

The restoration began in 1997, and in 2012 work on the accommodation and 21 private housing units of 22 solar panels were also installed to produce hot water and electricity have been completed.

Extracted from:http://www.torri-superiore.org/sostenibilita-in-pratica/(translated)

Sustainability in practice

Torri Superiore and ecovillage are one: the eco-village includes all members of residents and non-residents and guests of the accommodation are invited to follow the principles. From the beginning, the idea of restoring the village was based on ecological principles. Participation in the networks of ecovillages GEN RIVE and movement of Permaculture has spurred the group to focus and achieve their goals in an increasingly sustainable.

Extracted from:http://www.legaliguria.coop/decolla-la-rete-di-imprese-le-terre-di-confine-ture-nirvane-e-spes-tra-i-protagonisti/(translated)

Establishing the Network of Companies “The Borderlands.

The fledgling network consists of six companies. It in fact come within the Cooperative Ture Nirvane (which manages the Ecovillage Torri Superiore), the Cooperative Spes, the company Bees of Airole, and farms Cristina Doctors, Wilna Benso di Gianni Ballestra and Estates San Gregorio Patrizia Basso. The Ortinsieme Association acts as the supervisory body.

At the official presentation of the network, which took place in the Council Chamber of the City of Ventimiglia, was attended, among others, the mayors of the municipalities, being to close to the border with France, fall in the territory in which they operate, ie the towns of Ventimiglia, Airole, Olivetta San Michele, Dolceacqua, Rocchetta Nervina, Pigna and Triora.

The network, in fact, aims to operate and support the revitalization of the whole area that, in the four valleys Bevera, Roja, Nervia and Argentina, extends to the border with France.Leitmotif is the sharing among the parties belonging, of sharing a common desire to support and implement a strong impetus to social recovery, economic and territorial environment, based on essential values such as sustainability and solidarity.

“The network – he said the president Gianni Ballestra – has as its main purpose a holistic view of work, understood as a recomposition of knowledge, humanization of assistance and action on lifestyles. Piecing together the knowledge and integrate them with new knowledge, such as organic farming, permaculture, renewable energies, closed cycles and integration, it means creating a new world of work representation seen as a single entity composed of several elements (companies, associations, cooperatives) but above by people. An organism, ultimately, in which each change the state of things, every crisis, every change is processed and cured in a common activity. The idea of a network was established almost two years ago, driven by the need and desire to bring together under one project friends who share a certain type of path related to experimentation, knowledge, dissemination and monitoring of the territory. ”

Photo by hans s

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From Janne Eikeblad’s homeplace

Viking Women: Interview with Janne Eikeblad

BY BJØRN ANDREAS BULL-HANSEN ON MARCH 2, 2016

I recently had a chat with Janne Eikeblad, an ecovillage designer, permaculturist, tree hugger and social media influencer with 60.000 followers. I was interested in learning more about the recent trend among mainly young people in Scandinavia: Spending time out in the wild without a focus on hunting or fishing. Traditionally, the Scandinavian hunting culture has been dominating – too dominating – and just going out in the forest to be close to nature has been looked upon as very strange. I am glad to say that this is now changing, and more and more people are starting to understand that nature has a value that can not, and should not, be measured in pounds of potential elk meat and truck loads of timber.

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We proudly present you today The Book of Community which you can buy now in Amazon. It was written by the whole team of las Indias and translated by Steve Herrick.

From the introduction

We know that most people who propose to “create” a community don’t want to “live in community.” They are looking for guides to design a way of life for themselves and their circle based on sharing more than what they share so far, even if they feel like it’s excessively risky to have “too much” in common. We believe that this book can serve them to do better without having to reestablish the borders that have been set. It’s not that the different dimensions are independent from each other — not at all — but what we learned in each one of them will be interesting even for those who only want to go deeper into one.

This book, rather than a typical “manual,” should be read as an “advice book.” Its focus is practical, because it was practice that guided our evolution. Like Borges, who “wrote” Quijote in the middle of twentieth century, discovering that “what was coming out of him” was identical to what Cervantes had written, though he had not read him before, we realized little by little that that that we’d learned by trial and error, what defined the lifestyle that we were discovering, followed the steps of a long tradition that began in the garden of Epicurus and which we recognized in our era in the Icarians and the Israeli kibbutz. Still later, we met other communities in the US, Germany and Austria that, with years, sometimes decades, of history, and dozens, if not hundreds of members, that had arrived at very similar lessons and models to ours. They are productive and egalitarian communities that give special importance to conversation, learning, and debate, but also to production in common for the material needs of all.

Because we didn’t start from any concrete model, and because we didn’t have “blueprints” from which to build, we have organically incorporated tools and techniques that go far beyond the scarce current community bibliography. This bibliography is, almost entirely, of North American origin and suffers from the need to “invent” what was invented in South America and Europe long ago: the forms and practices of the housing cooperative. What’s shocking is that by dressing it with new clothes (“ecovillage,” “intentional community”), it can find a market in places like France, Spain, Argentina or Uruguay, where there’s a very long tradition of this kind of cooperativism. In contrast, there is little, by which I mean almost nothing, written half-decently about the topics that we usually share, when we “communards” from different places in the world meet each other: how to create an environment helps everyone to overcome their fears and laziness, how to enter the market, how to integrate new members, how to avoid community self-absorption, etc.

These will be our central topics on the following pages.

We think that communities that share everything have a treasure of valuable experiences for anyone who proposes to strengthen their real community and the people they value and feel close with, by sharing some dimension of life in common, whether it’s the economic dimension, the intellectual, or everyday coexistence. Unfortunately, these experiences are mostly part of the “oral culture” of each community network. They are shared but rarely written down. This book is one of the first attempts to do so in Spanish [originally]. It does not answer to any ideological label in particular, but attempts to collect learning from many communities that do not hide from such labels. It attempts to collect a “communitarian consensus,” but also make its contribution, except that this contribution has more to do with common sense in caring for the people and things around us than with any political or social theory. It is intended for those that are considering joining a community or who want to experience community practices with their friends.

If we’ve done it well, it will save you time and learning that sometimes can be painful. If we made assumptions or left out important things that are not obvious, we hope you’ll write us so we can improve new editions.

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