What are intentional communities?
“An “intentional community” is a group of people who have chosen to live together with a common purpose, working cooperatively to create a lifestyle that reflects their shared core values. The people may live together on a piece of rural land, in a suburban home, or in an urban neighborhood, and they may share a single residence or live in a cluster of dwellings.This definition spans a wide variety of groups, including (but not limited to) communes, student cooperatives, land co-ops, cohousing groups, monasteries and ashrams, and farming collectives. Although quite diverse in philosophy and lifestyle, each of these groups places a high priority on fostering a sense of community–a feeling of belonging and mutual support that is increasingly hard to find in mainstream Western society.”
Links to websites on research about communities and ecovillages:
- ICSA (International Communal Studies Association) ic.org/icsa
- RIC (research in community): literature data base: http://www.researchincommunity.net/index.php?id=41&L=1%2C
- Transition Research Network http://www.transitionresearchnetwork.org/
- Permaculture Research Network https://www.permaculture.org.uk/research
- ECOLISE: a coalition of organisations engaged in promoting and supporting local communities across Europe: http://www.ecolise.eu/
- Research on communities and ecovillages at the ecovillage Sieben Linden: http://www.siebenlinden.de/index.php?id=82
