Author: Chris Roth

Communities issue #182, Spring 2019, Community Land, shares stories about how intentional community projects can gain access to land. It asks provocative questions about land, people, privilege, and the obstacles that prevent communities (particularly disadvantaged communities) from reconnecting to land―and offers inspiring stories of overcoming those barriers to achieve more equity and sustainability. Just as access to land depends on community in some form, community often depends on and derives its vitality from a group’s relationship to land. The issue highlights the interdependence of our selves, our human communities, and the lands which steward (and are stewarded by) our presence.

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.

The Spring 2018 edition of Communities, focused on “Class, Race, and Privilege,” is now available for free download from ic.org/communities. The issue looks unflinchingly at a major “elephant in the room”—the relative lack of racial and class diversity in most ICs, at least in North America—while suggesting ways of recognizing, understanding, and addressing it. Authors share stories of obstacles they’ve encountered (from both sides of the privilege equation) and positive steps they and their groups have taken to move toward greater inclusivity and equity. They also reflect honestly on the deep-rootedness of unconscious racism, of social and cultural barriers, of problems of power, privilege, classism, “white fragility,” and more.

Our Winter 2017 issue, Urban Communities, takes readers on a journey from the US East Coast through middle America to the West Coast, then to Canada and overseas. The communities featured span an equally broad range—from communes to cohousing, from outward-focused to more inward-focused, from retrofit to custom-built, from ecovillages, intentional neighborhood projects, and service-oriented groups to broader efforts to expand and strengthen the urban commons. As our stories make clear, and despite popular preconceptions, in many ways no setting is better suited to intentional community than an urban one—and, even short of full intentional community, city-dwellers have many, ever-evolving options for creating more connection, mutual support, and sharing in their lives.

Our Fall issue explores Service and Activism in intentional communities. Authors share their stories of living and working in both service- and activist-oriented groups, including Camphill communities, Innisfree Village, Gesundheit!, Konohana Family, Magic, Black Bulga, and more. How do service and activism build community, both within a group and in the larger world? How can communitarians contribute to the well-being of the planet and its people? We also explore how long-standing, mission-focused communities—including Harbin Hot Springs, ZEGG, and EcoVillage at Ithaca—have evolved over time, and the latest research about happiness in community.

In our Summer issue, the Global Ecovillage Network, Gaia Trust, and the FIC partner to offer stories of pioneering efforts worldwide by communities working to incorporate the four dimensions of sustainability: social, ecological, economic, and worldview. We explore local solutions to global problems, creating carbon-negative communities, restoring our relationships to one another and the land, learning from indigenous groups, ecovillage strategies in areas of crisis, and more.

Our new issue, supported by High Wind Association, explores the many forms community can take.

Community can take many forms other than “intentional.” In our Winter issue, veterans of the High Wind Association network and others share their experiences exploring and cultivating community both within and outside of intentional community settings.

Community and the Law can be uneasy bedfellows. Some intentional communities are hobbled by legal restrictions—especially zoning, building codes, and permitting requirements—or by other effects, both within and outside the group, of a complaint-driven legal system. Yet some groups are able to forge new approaches and help change codes and laws to support more cooperative and resilient ways of living. In “Community and the Law,” authors share on-the-ground stories and guidance for others hoping to coexist peacefully and productively with the Law.