Governance + Group Dynamics
On Community: A Graduated Series of Consequences and the “Community Eye”
Posted on November 26, 2019 byJust knowing the community has this process in place deters people from breaking agreements. People don’t want to get a knock at the door by one fellow community member, much less three or four.
Whatever Happened to the Renaissance Community?
Posted on November 12, 2019 by1 Comment
Despite the lethal combination of power, ego, and spirituality that brought the Renaissance Community to an end, most of its ex-members cherish their time there as a growth experience that made them better people.
Missed Opportunity at the Goat Ranch
Posted on October 29, 2019 by1 Comment
Ted and Sally were truthful when they said they had no idea what they were doing, either running the business or establishing a community. They didn’t, much to the dismay of their departing managers and volunteers.
Founder’s Syndrome
Posted on October 22, 2019 byThe original founder, visionary, and main public point person for Bellyacres for over a quarter of a century laments that some members came to consider him “the root of all present, past, and future problems in the organization.”
The Expert
Posted on October 8, 2019 byWow! This woman has it all! She’s the answer to so many of our current dilemmas! What could possibly go wrong? A lot.
Village-Building Stumbles: A few of the things Earthaven Ecovillage has gotten wrong
Posted on October 1, 2019 byThose of us privileged enough to find ourselves in an intentional community often imagine that our environment will be free of the horrors and evils of the world. But alas, we bring it all with us.
Notes from the Editor: Exploring the Shadow Side
Posted on September 10, 2019 byA higher standard for interpersonal accountability and care makes the effect even more devastating when feelings of safety, security, and affection in community turn out to be based on illusion.
The Shadow Side of Cooperation – get your free download!
Posted on August 27, 2019 byA natural follow-up to our Summer 2019 Sexual Politics issue, Communities #184 (Fall 2019) focuses on The Shadow Side of Cooperation. We explore problems and pitfalls, disappointments and betrayals, unintended outcomes of cooperative attempts ranging in impact from trivial to tragic. Authors’ stories describe the clash of idealism with reality, communication breakdowns, cultural patterning, internalized oppression, rights and boundary violations, founder’s syndrome, business and organizational struggles, power, ego, disempowerment, dysfunction, trauma, and strategies to address these and other challenges. Please join us!
The Red Flag of Hypocrisy
Posted on August 18, 2019 byThe most troubling thing isn’t when a charismatic leader uses gangster tactics, but when the people in his office, who sing the songs of love and community values, are complicit.
Relationships in a Community-Forming Group
Posted on July 23, 2019 byWhile trying to start a community with poly-friendly collaborators, two monogamous partners achieve greater clarity in their six-year relationship, and end it.
The Sting of Discrimination: When Polyamory Is Considered a “Red Flag”
Posted on June 25, 2019 by9 Comments
Previously on the path to community acceptance, an applicant experiences for the first time “the direct sting of bigotry, the shock of exclusion based on stereotypes” when her family is denied on the basis of polyamory.
Your Monthly Freebie: Think Outside the Boss
Posted on June 8, 2019 byThis month’s Free Resource comes from Sustainable Economies Law Center, an organization whose mission is to “cultivates a new legal landscape that supports community resilience and grassroots economic empowerment.” Think… Read More
Your Monthly Freebie: Peer to Peer-A Commons Manifesto
Posted on May 13, 2019 byPeer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto By Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis, Alex Pazaitis Not since Marx identified the manufacturing plants of Manchester as the blueprint for the new capitalist society… Read More
Your Community and the Law
Posted on April 30, 2019 byEarthaven Ecovillage learns the hard way that it’s important for a community to choose its legal entities carefully, and to consult and listen to lawyers. A member shares some lessons from their ordeal.
Growing Together through Trauma, with the Land
Posted on April 9, 2019 byWhen La’akea Community’s stability is disrupted and its existence threatened by the aftermath of an earthquake, members discover that their land is a much larger source of “glue” to keep them together than they had thought.
How We Came to Inherit a Salmon Stream
Posted on March 30, 2019 byThe residents of Sahale Learning Center and EcoVillage welcome the salmon who swim from the Hood Canal up the Tahuya River each year to spawn.
4 Building Blocks of Community
Posted on February 25, 2019 byStart a Village “If you don’t like the way things are, Start a Village!” This was the essential message that Stephen Brooks delivered at his enthusiastic TEDx talk at Black… Read More
Skill Building for a Culture of Collaboration
Posted on January 7, 2019 byTo build a healthy cultural infrastructure, it’s important to clarify your cooperative decision-making process, adopt conflict tools, and commit to the ongoing development of collaborative skills in your group.
What it Takes to Create Community Connection
Posted on December 3, 2018 byCommon Conceptions of Community How can we create community connection — including more support, belonging, smiles, and growth — in our lives? Bianca Heyming gave a TED talk based on… Read More
Perennial Lessons from Historical Communities
Posted on October 30, 2018 by1 Comment
A modern-day communitarian “networks” with Fourierist communities of the 1840s by examining their lives together and noticing enduring themes, challenges, and solutions.
10 Most Common Mistakes in Consensus
Posted on October 15, 2018 by10 Most Common Mistakes in Consensus A Sneak Peak Inside Wisdom of Communities, Volume 3: Communication in Community by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore Manager In our new publication series, Wisdom… Read More
How to Help One Another: Connecting Cohousing Communities in a Regional Network
Posted on October 9, 2018 byIn 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 by2 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 by3 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.
Connect: Now More Than Ever
Posted on September 7, 2018 byTime 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.
Leading Edges of Collaboration: GENNA Alliance
Posted on August 26, 2018 bySix 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 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.
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… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
