Intentional Communities:
Wave of the Future or
Relic of the Past?
By Clay McGlaughlin
Communes
Source: http://www.freehomepages.com/gingras/hip-01.htm
Communes
Source: http://www.isar.org
Communes
Source: http://www.cnn.com
Goals of Intentional
Communities
• Share Resources
• Create Healthy Neighborhoods
• Pursuit of Ecologically Sustainable
Lifestyles
• Self-reliance and voluntary
simplicity
• Help refugees, homeless, disabled
Background
• Roots in counter-culture of 1960’s.
• Over 700 Intentional communities
worldwide.
• 540 communities in the United
States.
Source: Intentional Communities Directory, 1995, http://www.ic.org
Types of Intentional
Community
• Ecovillages –
Dedicated to alternative power,
water and sewage systems. Seek to minimalize
ecological impact.
• Cohousing Arrangements –
Planned, owned
and managed by residents. Extensive common areas for
cooking, socializing.
• Residential Land Trusts –
NPO created to hold
land for benefit of community. Promote ecologically
sound land-use. Preserve affordable housing.
Source: http://www.homesteadclt.org/CLTFAQ.htm
Types of Intentional
Community
• Communes –
Shared resources, little or no
personal property.
• Student Co-ops –
Affordable student living
provided through low interest loans managed by
cooperative.
• Urban Housing Co-ops –
Disadvantaged
people work together to save money, find financial
assistance, access land, and build infrastructure.
Demographics
• Most members are between 30-60
years old.
• Twenty-somethings and children
growing in representation.
• 54% Rural, 28% Urban, 10% Mixed,
8% Undeclared.
• Tend to be politically “left of center”.
Source: http://www.ic.org
Spirituality
• Many communities share a religion
or spiritual practice.
• 35% are explicitly religious.
• 65% are secular or don’t specify.
Intentional Communities:
Sandhill Farm
Source: http://www.sandhillfarm.org
Intentional Communities:
Dancing Rabbit
Source: http://www.dancingrabbit.org
Evaluating Communities
• Quality Education
• Affordable Housing
• Low Poverty Rates
• High Employment
• Low Crime Rates
• Healthy Environment and People
Source: http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org
SARE’S
Three Pillars of Sustainability
• Economic Stability
• Environmental Soundness
• Social Justice
Economic Stability:
Mainstream Communities
Economic Stability:
Mainstream Communities
•
Composed of individual wage earners
clustered by economic worth.
–
Wealthy communities stress city
resources to meet infrastructure costs of
suburban growth.
Source: http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org
Economic Stability:
Mainstream Communities
•
Composed of individual wage earners
clustered by economic worth.
–
Poor communities don’t receive necessary
infrastructure while paying to cover costs
of suburban sprawl.
Source: http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org
Economic Stability:
Mainstream Communities
• Both dependent on outside industry.
• Far from centers of production and
employment.
• Continuous, conspicuous consumption is
extremely resource intensive.
– Avg. American uses 300 shopping bags
worth of raw materials each week.
– We would need 3 planets to support
everyone at same level of consumption.
Source: http://www.creativeaction.org/Facts/consumption.htm
Economic Stability:
Mainstream Communities
• Centralized food sources, very
little food production.
– SARE estimates food travels an
average of 1500 miles before
consumption.
– Creates fragile, vulnerable system.
– Prone to price fluctuations, collapse.
Source: http://www.sare.org
Economic Stability:
Mainstream Communities
• Lifestyles in mainstream communities require
exploitation of foreign labor.
– Workers in Bangladesh receive 9 cents an hour to
stitch shirts for Wal*Mart.
– Wal*Mart buys from Chinese sweatshops.
• 90 Hour work weeks
• Exceptionally low wages
• Prison like conditions
• American labor is suffering as well:
– Bottom 40% of families declined from 2001 to 2004.
– Average income fell by 2.3%.
Source:
http://www.ufcw.org/press_room/fact_sheets_and_backgrounder/walmart/sweat_shops.cfm
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2006-02-23-fed-incomes_x.htm
Economic Stability:
Intentional Communities
Economic Stability:
Intentional Communities
• Economic situation varies widely.
• Communal Resources
• Individual Resources
• Egalitarian structure allows rich
and poor equal access to
resources.
Economic Stability:
Intentional Communities
• Revenue Sources:
– Produce
– Crafts\Jewelry
– Labor
– Value-added products
• Jam\Preserves
• Honey
• Processed meats
• Nuts
Economic Stability:
Intentional Communities
• Alternative currencies
• Everyone’s time is valued equally
Source: http://www.dancingrabbit.org
Economic Stability:
Intentional Communities
• Focus on reducing consumption
and achieving voluntary simplicity
allows members to live better lives
while consuming fewer resources.
• Food is produced on-site or
acquired locally.
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
• Wealthy communities have huge
houses, but few residents creating
a tremendous waste of space.
• Poor communities are often
cramped and squalid.
• Lack of affordable housing
elsewhere forces poor into ghettos.
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
• Low income housing is often built near
chemical plants and other unpleasant
and dangerous areas.
• Less political power to fight
environmental hazards.
• Higher morbidity and mortality rates
caused by poor conditions.
• Impact compounded by lack of health
care and health insurance.
Source: http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
• Urban Sprawl
– Uses up fertile, productive land
– Perpetuates problems it is trying to solve:
•
•
•
•
Poverty
Crime
Bad housing
Bad schools
– Creates disinvestment from impoverished
communities.
– Problems causing sprawl can only be
stopped by reducing inequality.
Source: http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
• Wildlife patterns are severely disrupted
by sprawl and urbanization.
• “Sprawl is one of the leading causes of
species decline in the country.” –John
Kostyak, NWF attorney.
• Sprawl is also likely to reduce nitrogen
in watersheds, resulting in loss of
agricultural land and reduction in forest
cover along streams and waterways.
Sources:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1170/is_2000_Sept-Oct/ai_64196598
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1440-1770.2002.00203.x
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
• Urban\Suburban communities are
heavily reliant on industrial agriculture.
• Industrial Agriculture puts a
tremendous load on the environment.
• Nitrate runoff creates “dead zones”.
• Monocultures leech nutrients from soil
and require large external inputs to
maintain.
Environmental Soundness:
Mainstream Communities
• As animal concentrations increase, risk
of evolution and transmission of
infectious diseases also increases.
• High concentration of humans and
animals leads to higher incidence of
zoonoses (diseases transmissable from
animals to humans).
• Prolonged use of low-level antibiotics
leads to resistant pathogens.
Source: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/8837/8837.pdf
Environmental Soundness:
Intentional Communities
Environmental Soundness:
Intentional Communities
• Small scale housing reduces need
for large structures.
• Houses are often made using
alternative materials (strawbales,
adobe, recycled materials).
• Even ‘poor’ intentional
communities often work to
improve land and soil quality.
Environmental Soundness:
Intentional Communities
• Potential to use undesirable
properties in urban and rural
settings.
• Urban sprawl can be minimized by
living smaller.
• Intentional communities also
reduce impact on wildlife.
Environmental Soundness:
Intentional Communities
• Local production reduces reliance
on markets and industrial
agriculture.
• Agricultural efforts are generally
small and organic with an
emphasis on sustainability.
• Poor intentional communities have
a high level of food security
compared to poor mainstream
communities.
Social Justice:
Mainstream Communities
Social Justice:
Mainstream Communities
• Social justice is secondary to profit
and convenience.
• Huge underclass required to serve
the needs of the wealthy.
• Decisions are made by groups of
powerful elitists.
Social Justice:
Mainstream Communities
• The world economy is largely
dependent on exploited\slave
labor.
• Antislavery International estimates
that there are at least 12 million
slaves in the world today.
• More than 6 million of these are
children.
Source: http://www.antislavery.org
Social Justice:
Mainstream Communities
• Slave and sweatshop labor is used to
produce many products consumed in
modern homes:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Electronics
Carpets\Textiles
Charcoal
Bricks
Jewelry
Plastic goods
Source: http://www.antislavery.org
Social Justice:
Mainstream Communities
• U.S. Agricultural system exploits
immigrant labor and mistreats workers.
– Ag industry accounted for 2% of overall
employment, but had 13% of all occupational deaths
from 1994-99.
– Seasonal workers often live in unsanitary conditions
in overcrowded and deficient housing.
– Up to 85% of migrant workers are minorities.
– Workers are paid avg. wage of less than $7,500/yr.
Source: National Center for Farmworker Health
http://www.ncfh.org/docs/02%20-%20environment.pdf
Social Justice:
Mainstream Communities
• Individuality and privacy are highly
valued.
• Community support is sacrificed in
many cases.
• People are cut off from each other,
resulting in alienation.
• Lack of social security nets.
Social Justice:
Intentional Communities
Social Justice:
Intentional Communities
• Work is shared equally among
members.
• Member’s skills are used to the fullest,
increasing satisfaction and sense of
wellbeing.
• Products not produced on-site are
purchased locally whenever possible to
reduce reliance on exploitive systems.
Social Justice:
Intentional Communities
• Important decisions are made by
consensus, allowing for a greater
sense of self-actualization.
• Most communities strive for as few
restrictive laws as possible.
• Commonality and community are
primary values, taking precedence
over profit.
Social Justice:
Intentional Communities
• Lesser degree of privacy, more
community support and
camaraderie.
• Shared goals and ideals allow for a
greater sense of purpose and
fulfillment.
Sustainable Practices
Sustainable Practices
• Agroforestry
– Alley Cropping
– Forest Farming
– Riparian Bufferzones
– Silvopasture
– Windbreaks
Sustainable Practices
• Integrated Pest Management –
builds and
preserves soil health. Attracts beneficial insects,
reduces destructive insects.
Source: http://surgery-graphics.med.umich.edu/~matt/archives/images/Ladybug.jpg
Sustainable Practices
• Management Intensive Grazing
– Rotate animals through series of
fields, allowing vegetation to regrow.
– Distributes nutrients to depleted soils.
– Easier on environment than feedlots.
– Reduces risk of virulent diseases.
Source: http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/cows.jpg
Sustainable Practices
• Urban Agriculture
– Makes use of abandoned land and empty lots.
– Phytoremediation removes pollutants from soil.
– Provides abundant food for poor urban populations.
Source: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/IMG/20860lg.jpg
Sustainable Practices
• Grass Roots Democracy
Source: http://concernedpeople.org/party/Circle.jpg
Resources
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•
•
•
•
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http://www.creativeaction.org
http://www.homesteadclt.org
http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org
http://www.ic.org
http://www.sare.org
http://www.ufcw.org
• http://www.dancingrabbit.org
• http://www.sandhillfarm.org
• http://www.antislavery.org
• http://www.ncfh.org