Take Part In The People’s State of the Union This January
Posted on December 26, 2016 byBeginning in 2015, the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture has led a project called the People’s State of the Union, to coincide with the president’s annual address to the nation.… Read More
Taking the Systems View: climate change as a driver of SDG implementation
Posted on December 22, 2016 byThis is a guest post by Dr. Daniel Christian Wahl, Head of Innovation at Gaia Education, which is based out of Findhorn Ecovillage. Once the doors closed on yet another United Nations… Read More
Five Tools to Help Groups Thrive
Posted on December 21, 2016 byA clearly articulated evolutionary purpose, a welcoming of the whole self, and governance through self-management are keys to collective success.
Digital Security For Your Intentional Community
Posted on December 19, 2016 byFor some high-profile communities, visibility is a good thing. The Dancing Rabbit ecovillage in Rutledge, Missouri, depends on workshops and other business endeavors to support itself. Many communities maintain a social media… Read More
The world, and the FIC, need you
Posted on December 17, 2016 byThe world, and the FIC, need you! Dear Friends, Is it just me, or is the world going a little more crazy than usual? Does it seem like more people… Read More
This Year, We’ll Need Community More Than Ever
Posted on December 15, 2016 byI woke up on Election Day ready to get the whole thing over with. My life was already in a state of transition: the eco-village I’d lived in for two… Read More
How This Toronto Nonprofit Encourages Collaborative Consumption
Posted on December 12, 2016 byFor years, the news media has been looking to Silicon Valley as the epicenter of the new “sharing economy.” Maybe it should be looking to Toronto instead. Over the past few years,… Read More
Social Permaculture: Applying the Principles
Posted on December 11, 2016 byPermaculture’s 12 principles apply to human groups just as much as to any other ecological system.
Orange Splot LLC Is Creating New Community Housing in Portland
Posted on December 8, 2016 byPortland, Oregon, is known for being ahead of the curve when it comes to alternative housing and co-operative living. From the Tiny House Hotel to the Columbia Ecovillage cohousing community, there… Read More
How Homeowners Can Be More Intentional Landlords
Posted on December 5, 2016 byNext month, I’ll be moving into a house owned by a “community landlord.” Rather than simply renting out rooms in the house, the homeowner (who no longer lives on the property),… Read More
What does it take to cooperate?
Posted on December 5, 2016 byWhat does it take to cooperate? Dear Friends, We all know that cooperation is the only way forward to actually address the monumental challenges facing humanity. But this isn’t easy.… Read More
The Class Cultures Toolkit Can Help You Host More Inclusive Meetings and Events
Posted on December 1, 2016 byTalking about class can be difficult – especially in intentional communities that include people from a variety of backgrounds. It can be a challenge to balance the needs of members… Read More
Social Permaculture—What Is It?
Posted on December 1, 2016 byEcological relationships are relatively easy to deal with. Human relationships are often much more difficult, but we can design social structures that favor beneficial patterns of behavior.
Help Kickstart This Composting Toilet Research Project!
Posted on November 28, 2016 byIntentional communities can be the perfect testing ground for new sustainability practices – whether it’s an innovative greywater system or an aquaponics garden. At my community in Portland, we use our own composting toilet system, specifically… Read More
Not Rocket Science, but Just as Important
Posted on November 25, 2016 byThe arts of cooperative living—supported tirelessly by the cash-strapped FIC, and worthy now more than ever of financial support—will be as essential as technical skills if our species is to survive on this planet or any other.
The Untold Story of Utopian Communes In America
Posted on November 24, 2016 byIt was a time of great change and social experimentation. Groups of like-minded people pooled their money to buy property in what one writer called a kind of “socialist land mania.” Another philosopher… Read More
The Damanhur Community In Italy Has Its Own Currency and Constitution
Posted on November 21, 2016 byThe community of Damanhur in northern Italy is known for the Temples of Humankind, a 5-story series of underground chambers built by residents of the community as a spiritual gathering… Read More
Social Permaculture, and Public vs. Private, #173 Contents
Posted on November 21, 2016 byOur Winter issue explores both Social Permaculture and the interface of Public and Private in intentional community. Starhawk and her colleagues share wisdom from the cutting edge of social permaculture practice, while diverse communitarians discuss how they find balance between the collective and the individual, openness and self-protection, outer-world activism and internal focus. We also learn about Sociocracy missteps, legal structures that help groups put their best feet forward (or not), and more.
Arcosanti Combines Architecture and Ecology in The Arizona Desert
Posted on November 17, 2016 byAbout 70 miles north of Phoenix, high in the Arizona desert, a blocky, concrete series of buildings rises out of the hillside. It looks like a cross between a futuristic… Read More
The First Seasteading Community May Be Closer To Reality Than We Thought
Posted on November 17, 2016 by1 Comment
In June, I wrote a blog post about the Ephemerisle Festival, a gathering on the Sacramento River Delta that imagines what a floating city might look like. The festival hopes… Read More
This Binational City Would Make Borders A Thing of the Past
Posted on November 14, 2016 byArchitect Fernando Romero has a plan for a binational city stretching over the U.S. and Mexican border. The project was on display last month at the London Design Biennale 2016. The designers… Read More
You Are The FIC
Posted on November 14, 2016 byYou Are The FIC! After last Tuesday, could it be any more obvious that the world is in crisis? When the unimaginable happens, how do you respond? My request to… Read More
A New Book Combines Zen and Permaculture to Educate and Inspire
Posted on November 10, 2016 byStefan Geyer, a London resident active in the U.K. permaculture community, is releasing a new book called “Zen in the Art of Permaculture Design.” It’s not a guidebook to specific permaculture… Read More
Buy, Eat, and Live Local With Help From BALLE’s New Toolkits
Posted on November 7, 2016 byWhether it’s eating local, supporting worker-owned businesses, or taking money out of Wall Street banks, the “localist” movement is on the rise. While the dominance of mega-corporations like Wal-Mart and Amazon may… Read More
The Micro-Nation of Liberland Could Be The World’s Biggest Planned Community
Posted on November 3, 2016 byPicture a country built from scratch: a city-state with open borders, where paying taxes is optional and there are no laws other than “live and let live.” At just three square miles, cars… Read More
Happiness in Communal Life: A Scientific Project
Posted on November 1, 2016 byStatistics don’t lie: communal living seems to help people be happier.
How Does Your Community Create Space for Romantic Partnerships?
Posted on October 31, 2016 byIn the popular imagination, intentional communities have a reputation for being free-for-alls when it comes to love and relationships. But in reality, that’s rarely the case, and many communities have guiding… Read More
How to find your community
Posted on October 29, 2016 byCommunity Bookstore How to Find Your Community by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore Manager Best of Communities II Seeking and Visiting a Community A special selection of articles from Communities: Life… Read More
The Jewish Intentional Community Conference Takes Place December 1-4
Posted on October 27, 2016 byThe FIC’s Intentional Communities Directory includes communities that range from the spiritual to the secular. If you want to find a religiously affiliated (or unaffiliated) community, there’s a good… Read More
These Apps Connect Excess Food With People Who Need It
Posted on October 24, 2016 byNearly $500 billion worth of food gets thrown away in the U.S. each year – while nearly 50 million Americans go hungry. A new app hopes to use peer-to-peer technology to… Read More
