Issue 180


Perennial Lessons from Historical Communities

Posted on October 30, 2018 by
1 Comment

A modern-day communitarian “networks” with Fourierist communities of the 1840s by examining their lives together and noticing enduring themes, challenges, and solutions.


The Gifts of Gathering

Posted on October 23, 2018 by

Organizing and cleaning up after Midwest Catholic Worker gatherings can be hard work—but are more than counterbalanced by the inspiration, connection, and sense of greater purpose they provide.


The Cohousing Research Network: A Community Approach to Communities Research

Posted on October 16, 2018 by

The collaborative research process in this “virtual intentional community” comes with challenges, but the personal and collective outcomes of collaboration prove worth the trouble.


How to Help One Another: Connecting Cohousing Communities in a Regional Network

Posted on October 9, 2018 by

In the PDX-Plus Cohousing Group, individual member groups find it simultaneously reassuring, daunting, and energizing to learn that their challenges and joys in living intentionally in community are shared.


Inclusivity and Disability

Posted on September 28, 2018 by
2 Comments

Cohousing aspires to be as inclusive as possible, but North American culture suppresses conversation about disability and health. How can communities create processes to address previously invisible needs?


Liberation, Networks, and Community

Posted on September 21, 2018 by
3 Comments

Movements and networks of liberation show us that community can be a tool either of oppression or of powerful organizing for liberation. It’s time for our movement to get solidly on the right side of history.


On the Potential for an IC Business Network

Posted on September 14, 2018 by
2 Comments

Research and data strongly suggest that a network of intentional community businesses could fill a real need for both customers and business owners.


Connect: Now More Than Ever

Posted on September 7, 2018 by

Time spent at Lost Valley and La’akea inspires a passion not just for community and its heart-opening, communication-deepening, earth-connecting effects, but also for communal networking and the difference it can make in the world.


Communities of Intention in Peru, Ecuador, and Beyond: A Summer of Travel and Rediscovering Communal Roots

Posted on August 27, 2018 by

As a college project, a child of intentional community explores how others define community, discovering that organic community spaces are possible everywhere.


Leading Edges of Collaboration: GENNA Alliance

Posted on August 26, 2018 by

Six key networking organizations come together to serve the regenerative communities movement by forming GENNA, the North American branch of the Global Ecovillage Network.


Answering the “Call of the Mountain” through a Spiralling Network of Sustainability

Posted on August 25, 2018 by

Organizing 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 by

It’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 by

Just 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.