Intentional community

• 1. Defining The Collective Vision

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  An intentional community is a voluntary residential group designed to foster high social cohesion and teamwork. These groups typically promote shared values or beliefs, which may be political, religious, utopian, or spiritual. Some communities focus on practical benefits like cooperation and mutual support rather than strict ideologies. A 1986 definition by B. Shenker describes them as relatively small groups creating a whole way of life for specific goals. D.E. Pitzer defined them in 1989 as small, voluntary social units partly isolated from general society where members share an economic union. G. Kozeny offered a 1996 definition calling them groups who have chosen to live together with a common purpose. W.J. Metcalf described them in 2004 as five or more people drawn from more than one family voluntarily coming together to ameliorate perceived social problems. Participants are characterized by a we-consciousness, seeing themselves as a continuing group separate from mainstream society. The term commune often carries negative connotations linked to leftist politics or hippies. Many intentional communities do not consider themselves utopian despite the label being applied to them. Synonyms include alternative lifestyle, cooperative community, withdrawn community, enacted community, socialist colony, and communitarian experiment.

• 2. Historical Roots And Evolution

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  Ashrams likely represent the earliest intentional communities founded around 1500 BCE. Buddhist monasteries appeared approximately 500 BCE while Pythagoras established an intellectual vegetarian commune in southern Italy about 525 BCE. Over the last three hundred years hundreds of utopian communities formed across Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. These groups intended to create better, more sustainable worlds at least locally. This process continues today as seen in East Wind Community and green urbanism projects. The Suffolk-born radical John Goodwyn Barmby invented the term commune in 1840 during his time as a Unitarian minister. At the start of the 1970s Ron E. Roberts classified communes as a subclass of larger utopias. He listed three main characteristics: egalitarianism rejecting hierarchy, human scale opposing industrialization, and conscious anti-bureaucracy. Twenty-five years later Dr. Bill Metcalf defined communes by core principles including group importance over nuclear family units. A common purse system characterizes many historical examples alongside collective household arrangements. Group decision-making governs general affairs and intimate matters within these structures. The Fellowship for Intentional Community lists 222 communes worldwide as of the 28th of January 2019.

• 3. Governance Models And Structure

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  Democratic governance represents the most common form found in intentional communities accounting for 64 percent of cases. Decisions are made through some form of consensus decision-making or voting procedures. Hierarchical or authoritarian structures govern only 9 percent of communities while about 11 percent combine democratic and hierarchical elements. Sixteen percent did not specify their governance model in available data. Egalitarian values mean members have equal access to resources and decision-making power. Some communities support affirmative action to ensure individual members possess equal rights and opportunities. Benjamin Zablocki categorized communities into academic groups, alternative-family setups, coliving arrangements, cooperative models, countercultural movements, political organizations, psychological frameworks, and rehabilitational programs. Religious and spiritual communities often practice communal meals as a shared activity. Christian intentional communities like Simple Way, Bruderhof, and Rutba House emulate earliest Christian practices using biblical books such as Acts and Sermon on the Mount. These groups demonstrate faith in corporate contexts while practicing compassion and hospitality despite strict membership criteria. They remain open to visitors unlike more reclusive intentional communities. A survey from the 1995 Communities Directory showed 54 percent of listed communities were rural locations. Urban sites accounted for 28 percent while 10 percent maintained both rural and urban properties.

• 4. Global Case Studies In Practice

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  In Australia Moora Moora Co-operative Community stands as one of the oldest continuously running groups with about 47 members as of October 2021. Located atop Mount Toolebewong sixty-five kilometers east of Melbourne this community has been entirely off the electricity grid since its inception in 1974. Founding members Peter and Sandra Cock still reside there today. Canada hosted early settlements including an Ontario Quaker sect called The Children of Peace operating from 1812 to 1889 at Hope now Sharon. Other utopian communities emerged at Maxwell near Sarnia and Holberg founded in 1829 by Owenites. Ruskin and Sointula on Malcolm Island represent well-known historical Canadian utopian settlements. Germany saw at least 100 intentional communities start between 1890 and 1930 during rapid urbanization though data remains unreliable. These often pursued nudism vegetarian organic agriculture or ideologies like anarchism socialism eugenics or religious beliefs. Kommune 1 began a resurgence in Berlin during the 1960s without knowledge of previous movements. A network called Kommuja contains about 40 member groups as of May 2023. Israel hosts Kibbutzim starting as agricultural communes before evolving into dozens of urban kibbutzim emphasizing social change education and local involvement. Ireland witnessed John Vandeleur establish Ralahine Estate commune in 1831 with twenty-two adult single men seven married women their husbands five single women four orphan boys and five children under nine years old. No money was employed only credit notes used in the commune shop until collapse due to gambling debts in November 1833.

• 5. The Hippie Movement Legacy

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  A variety of alternative living arrangements based on aspirations for better living dot United States history from small-scale attempts to large government-sponsored subsistence homesteads during the Depression era. Historic utopian communities predated and led to rise of hippie movement communes and back-to-the-land ventures of the 1960s and 1970s. Kaliflower started in San Francisco in 1967 as a utopian living cooperative valuing free love and anti-capitalism. Wheeler's Ranch and Morning Star Ranch emerged as other prominent northern California communes at that time. Gilbert Zicklin noted in his 1983 book Countercultural Communes that majority residents were white upper-middle class young people. Damon Bach wrote minorities and low-income individuals hesitated joining because voluntary poverty acceptance seemed unlikely. Andrew Jacobs reported in The New York Times in 2006 that after decades contraction American commune movement expanded since mid-1990s. This growth spurred settlements marrying 1960s utopian-minded communes with American predilection for privacy and capital appreciation. Twin Oaks founded in 1967 stands as rare non-religious commune surviving longer than thirty years. Bruderhof established US operations in 1954 while Koinonia Farm began in 1942. Synchronicity LA represents newer intentional community founded in 2008. Protest camps appearing as recently as 2020 may be considered part of United States intentional community history.

• 6. Modern Sustainability And Urbanism

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  The Findhorn Ecovillage community at The Park in Moray Scotland now houses more than four hundred people. Founded by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean in 1962 it serves as educational center and experimental architectural project. Wind turbines make the ecovillage net exporter of electricity to surrounding areas. Lammas Ecovillage near Crymych Pembrokeshire received planning permission from Welsh Government in 2009 creating nine holdings as central communal hub. Orania town in South Africa founded in 1991 by Afrikaners reached population of two thousand five hundred by 2022 experiencing rapid fifty-five percent growth since 2018. This model favors strict self-sufficiency with own currency bank local government employing only Afrikaners. Simon Community in London eases homelessness through food distribution and religion staffed by homeless people and volunteers running street cafés. Camphill villages provide support for education employment daily lives of adults children with developmental disabilities mental health problems or special needs based on anthroposophic philosophy. Twin Oaks remains rare example non-religious commune surviving longer than thirty years while Synchronicity LA represents newer intentional community founded in 2008. The Fellowship for Intentional Community lists communes worldwide including religious institutions like abbeys and monasteries alongside secular groups.