Gain the Wisdom of Communities

Smiling woman with long wavy hair in purple shirt leaning against brick wall.
Kim Kanney
  • April 24, 2019
  • Relationships
  • Sustainability
Book covers on community building and sustainability from the Foundation for Intentional Community.

Have you ordered your copies of the Wisdom of Communities 4 volume set?

Each volume can be purchased individually or buy the entire set at a discounted price.
Also available as an ebook!

What is Wisdom of Communities?

Since 1972, Communities magazine, published by the Foundation for Intentional Community, has been collecting and disseminating the lessons learned of starting, growing and living in intentional community. The best lessons and stories told have been distilled into a 4 volume book series called the “Wisdom of Communities.”

This series is intended to aid community founders, seekers, current communitarians, students, and researchers alike in their explorations. Each book is over 300 pages and features over 100 of our best articles.

What is in each Volume?


Volume 1 – Starting a Community: Resources and Stories about Creating and Exploring Intentional Community includes both general articles and on-the-ground stories from intentional community founders and other catalysts of cooperative efforts.

This book aims to increase the survival rate of attempts to start intentional communities (it’s estimated that currently just 10 percent move past the initial stages). Table of Contents

Volume 2 – Finding a Community: Resources and Stories about Seeking and Joining Intentional Community is a response to the reality that many searches for intentional community fizzle out due to lack of adequate information, guidance, or exposure to fellow travelers’ stories.

Authors share experiences, tools, advice, and perspectives that should help anyone searching for an intentional community—whether to visit or to live in—increase the likelihood of finding what they’re seeking. Table of Contents

Volume 3 – Communication in Community: Resources and Stories about the Human Dimension of Cooperative Culture includes articles about decision-making, governance, power, gender, class, race, relationships, intimacy, politics, and neighbor relations in cooperative group culture.

These areas are key for communities to address if they are to retain members and develop strong and healthy group connection. Table of Contents

Volume 4 – Sustainability in Community: Resources and Stories about Creating Eco-Resilience in Intentional Community focuses on food, water, shelter, energy, land, permaculture, ecovillage design, eco-education, and resilience in cooperative culture.

These areas will prove more and more essential in allowing communities to navigate changing circumstances on our planet, while growing into new, regenerative ways of living and thriving together. Table of Contents

How do I purchase the entire set?

Click here! Each printed volume is $30 per book. Digital ebooks are $20 each.
Buy the entire set here for an additional $20 off.

Add a Communities magazine subscription to glean all future wisdom.

And check out our Best of Communities series, 15-volume set.

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