All Blog Posts
Answering the “Call of the Mountain” through a Spiralling Network of Sustainability
Posted on August 25, 2018 byOrganizing a networking gathering yields many benefits, but the collatoral trials and tributions take their toll on this organizer—now recharging by prioritizing farm and family.
Notes from the Editor: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Posted on August 24, 2018 byIt’s still possible to make it a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Networking Communities, #180 Contents and Free/By Donation Digital Download
Posted on August 23, 2018 byJust as no person is an island, no intentional community is an island. ICs are connected to other communities and cooperative groups locally, regionally, nationally, internationally—whether those connections are actively cultivated or simply present in shared participation in a cooperative experience. Intentional cultivation of those ties—the fostering of networks—can make each participant group stronger and more resilient. In Communities’ “Networking Communities” issue (Fall 2018, #180), authors share their journeys in exploring and creating networks—among communitarians, among communities, even among networks of communities and among communities researchers. They discuss the joys and benefits as well as trials and tribulations of organizing networking gatherings, of attempting to address social justice, ecological, and related challenges through collective visioning and action, of working toward an equitable and regenerative future in concert with others, of exploring the edges of cultural evolution, of learning from others’ experiences as well as their own. They talk about the potential of further networking to help us create the future we want to see. We hope you’ll draw helpful information, inspiration, and insight from their stories. Once again, the issue is available via free/by donation digital download at ic.org/communities.
Cohousing Makes You Happier
Posted on August 20, 2018 byLoneliness kills. This is what new evidence suggests from a range of reputable institutions and studies, to bolster that likely feeling in your gut about this. To clarify, loneliness is not just being isolated. Isolation is a public health epidemic. You may spend professional and personal time around other people, but just how connected… Read More
What does it mean to live like a village?
Posted on August 13, 2018 by1 Comment
What is a Village? “In the simplest terms, it is the intersection and interconnection of people and place” explains Jamaica Stevens, author, event producer, and community activist. “How do we create a culture shift towards communities of celebration, cooperation, resilience, and respect?” Jamaica set about sharing some answers to these questions in her culture-shifting ReInhabiting the… Read More
Remembering Zendik: Mating in Captivity
Posted on August 2, 2018 byHelen Zuman’s debut book describes in detail her six-year-long involvement with a radical intentional community that also fits many people’s definition of “cult.”
Use New Power to Build a Movement
Posted on August 1, 2018 byWhat is New Power? It is not just a change in technologies that is reshaping our world, our culture, and our participation in it. Our beliefs and expectations for what is possible, and what ought to be possible, is also changing. This is eclipsing the old lessons on the right way to create and sustain… Read More
The Concrete Thinking of Hobbits
Posted on July 27, 2018 byWhat makes Maitreya Mountain Village’s multi-functional Hobbit Hole so eco-friendly is that it’s constructed of concrete. Yes, you read that right.
Top 17 Myths About Intentional Communities
Posted on July 25, 2018 byWhy not Join a Community? “I would live in a Community, but…” fill in the blank here. There are a lot of assumptions, fears, and misunderstandings about intentional communities that lead people to have false stereotypes of them. This list of the Top 17 Myths about Intentional Communities should help to dispel some common concerns!… Read More
Call it Your Community
Posted on July 25, 2018 byHumanity thrives when people work together. An “Intentional Community” shows what happens when people take this premise to the next level — by living together in a village of their own making which reflects their shared values. Intentional Communities come in many shapes and sizes, and go by many names. This includes cohousing, ecovillages, cooperative… Read More
From Blight to Beautiful: Renovating an Urban House By and For Community
Posted on July 20, 2018 byAn overgrown lot with a dilapidated house transforms into an urban permaculture oasis thanks to the efforts of the Bread and Roses Collective in Syracuse, New York.
It Takes a Village to Organize a Mind
Posted on July 19, 2018 byI studied psychology in high school and college, and still find it imminently relevant today. I am fascinated when evolutionary psychology can offer insight into the roots of why we tick the way we do. What is our more original “programming” — or the baseline that we are set to be impressed into by the… Read More
Press Release – Pilot Episode and Campaign Released
Posted on July 18, 2018 byRenewable Energy World and over 130 other online news outlets picked up the press release, as follows: Pilot Episode and Campaign Released for ‘Planet Community’ – Web Series That Features Intentional Communities “Planet Community” is a new web series created to bring awareness to different types of intentional communities that exemplify values of cooperation, sustainability,… Read More
A High-Performance Building for Cohousing: From Vision to Move-In
Posted on July 13, 2018 bySo you want to design, build, and live in community in the most ecologically positive building that can be built? After a decade-long pursuit of that goal, a co-creator of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing recounts lessons learned along the way.
The Virtue of Sharing
Posted on July 11, 2018 byHow Important is Sharing to the Future? This ‘Future Tense’ podcast ‘The Virtue of Sharing‘ covered the remarkable nature of sharing, and it’s critical importance to a thriving human culture, and our well-being. Edwina Stott interviewed our friend Tom Llewellyn from Shareable.net, a non-profit “obsessed” with sharing. They just released a new FREE guide: Sharing Cities:… Read More
Planet Community: Holistic solutions to systemic problems – Help us launch a new video series!
Posted on July 9, 2018 by2 Comments
We’re creating a new web series! Please support our Kickstarter campaign! Okay y’all, we’ve got a problem. Let’s get real. We are facing multiple, interconnected global dangers, rooted in the exploitation of people and planet. These dangers include climate change, wealth disparity, and social injustice. These are co-created and mutually reinforcing problems. They… Read More
Good Neighbours with Earth: Using natural building materials in community-scale construction
Posted on June 29, 2018 byEarthsong Eco-Neighbourhood offers their mistakes, successes, and learnings in the hope of encouraging the wider use of natural building materials and systems in cohousing projects.
Eco-Building at the Ecovillage (I Have Built a Home)
Posted on June 22, 2018 by1 Comment
At Earthaven Ecovillage, the experience of planning, building, working with others, and living in the sensual, earthy “Leela”—part temple, part hideaway—proves to be a dream come true.
Building with Respect
Posted on June 15, 2018 by1 Comment
Green building could be our salvation or hasten our destruction, depending on what we pursue and how. Here are a dozen suggestions to make the former more likely.
Common Bound Is Coming!
Posted on June 8, 2018 byWe’ve mentioned this before but this year the FIC is especially proud to be co-sponsoring the New Economy Coalition’s Common Bound Conference in St. Louis, June 22-24. There’s still time to register here. What is Common Bound? They’re over 700 people across the new economy movement who will come together in St. Louis to connect… Read More
Ionia’s Barn Project: Where Community and Natural Building Meet
Posted on June 8, 2018 byAt this cooperative ecovillage, the barn is magical, a space that will make a liberating special meeting area, meditation nook, reading loft, and more…once, after nine long years of building, it is done.
Building in an Ecovillage: Lessons Learned
Posted on June 1, 2018 byYes, you can build your own house; you don’t have to do it alone; you don’t have to do it all…and 18 more tips from a professional builder who learned his trade at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage.
Harmonious Homemade Habitat
Posted on May 30, 2018 byHaving built the strawbale house of her dreams, a Tolstoy Farm resident encourages others to use natural building and eco-materials to construct durable, nontoxic, low-impact, energy-efficient, and creative structures.
Schedule Posted for Ecovillage Pathways
Posted on May 28, 2018 byThe schedule for Ecovillage Pathways in just a few weeks is OUT! Go check out what’s coming up in this transformational event co-sponsored by the FIC at http://www.nextgenna.org/2018ecovillagepathways.html Ecovillage Pathways is a gathering of diverse ages exploring the emergent future of thriving community. We join those who have been living and learning for decades with those… Read More
Building Collectively Is Greener, Easier, and Cheaper
Posted on May 28, 2018 byEco-building in community offers both opportunities and challenges, benefits and potential drawbacks, as compared to doing it alone.
Adventures of the Mini Moon: Realities of building your own earthen house with reused materials and volunteer labor
Posted on May 26, 2018 byBecoming a general contractor for a project way beyond one’s abilities can be a powerful, humbling, community-building learning adventure, especially when the house is made of horse manure.
Eco-Building, #179 Contents and Free/By Donation Digital Download
Posted on May 24, 2018 byFor reasons both practical and ideological, intentional community has long been a hotbed of eco-building activity. In Communities’ “Eco-Building” issue (Summer 2018, #179), authors share their eco-building journeys, ranging from nearly-free stick-framed shelters to high-end green developments. They examine how to assess whether a building is actually “eco,” hard choices they’ve needed to make, the benefits and challenges of taking on eco-building projects in community, or of retrofitting vs. building new, and much more. Once again, the issue is available via free/by donation digital download at ic.org/communities.
Call for Workshops at the 2018 Twin Oaks Communities Conference
Posted on May 23, 2018 byThe Twin Oaks Communities Conference, in partnership with the FIC, is seeking workshop proposals for their annual Labor Day weekend event (August 31st to September 2nd). Workshops fall under two broad types: Fixed Time Workshops: This is the collection of 16 (or sometimes 20) workshops which are selected in advance on various and all aspects of… Read More
Striving for Transformation & Adaptation
Posted on May 21, 2018 byIn our latest e-newsletter our Community Bookstore manager, Kim Kanney presents the following titles as inspiration for positive change. Please check them out! Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation People, Place, Practice, Power, Politics and Possibility in Transition. $20; 216 pages; paperback; 2017 by Thomas Henfrey, Gesa Maschkowski & Gil Penha-Lopes Resilience, Community Action & Societal… Read More
Transition Towns’ Stories for Change Beyond Survival
Posted on May 11, 2018 by4 Comments
Transition US, the national networking and organizing group for Transition Towns, is celebrating their tenth anniversary with the series, 10 Stories of Transition. Last month in the FIC’s webinar series, Don Hall, Co-Director of Transition US and founder of Transition Sarasota, talked about bringing the values and benefits of intentional communities to not just a… Read More
