A Model of Sustainable Living: Collective Identity in an Urban Ecovillage

Abstract

Ecovillages are burgeoning communitarian phenomena in postindustrialized countries whose members push for ecologically sustainable change. The author situated a case study of an urban ecovillage in the social movement literatures on political opportunity structures and collective identity construction in an endeavor to bridge macro-structural movement and micro-identity construction theories. Using participant observation and interview data from ecovillagers, she answers three research questions to investigate how ecovillagers’ collective goals for sustainability are negotiated in the context of regulations and dominant consumer ideologies. Informed by literatures on collective identity, the author asked, “What are ecovillagers’ goals? What work do they do in their everyday lives to achieve these goals?” Additionally, to understand villagers’ interactions with political opportunity structures, she asked, “How do members negotiate actions within a larger political environment that both facilitates and constrains them?” From her data, she determined how ecovillagers conceptualize their collective identity and actions within the context of constraining institutions.

Dimensions of Community and Local Institutions’ Support: Towards an Eco-Village Kelurahan in Indonesia

“…Eco-villages should develop through the sharing process involving the elements of interaction and togetherness to achieve the environmental, economic, social, and organizational sustainability [15,16]. There is a common goal to be achieved in the eco-village: the communities must be connected to their environment [17].…”

“…Although the Iranian approach to developing an eco-village may be locally specific as the relationship between democratization and environmental activism is different than that of democratic countries, the importance of participation of the people and local institutions is the same. In an indispensable work by Ergas [16], she highlights the aspect of collective identity in the case of an eco-village in the Pacific Northwest United States. Collective identity of the eco-villagers can be considered key to the successful movement towards sustainable living in the context of the larger political structure that may be obstructing it.…”

Eco-villages: Subpolitical Answer to Unsustainability

“…je osmislio taj naziv ranih 1990-ih godina kako bi uskladio ekološki dizajn s dizajnom izgradnje zajednice. Kao što prefiks "eko" nagovještava, ekosela se stvaraju s namjerom proekološkog, održivog života, života posvećenog okolišu (Ergas, 2010.) ili usmjerenog na neoštećivanje okoliša.…”

“…U skladu sa Schehrovom (1997.) definicijom četvrtog vala namjernih zajednica, suvremeni stanovnici namjernih zajednica, time i ekosela, sve se više uključuju u dominantnu kulturu (Ergas, 2010.). Radije nego da se izoliraju, oni izlaze van okvira zajednica pokušavajući mijenjati trenutne dominantne strukture (Schehr, 1997.;Smith, 2002.…”

The Design of Intentional Communities: A Recycled Perspective on Sustainable Neighborhoods

“…(1968, p. 64) These theoretical advantages apply to the study of ICs, although perhaps to a lesser degree when an IC is less independent from mainstream culture. The practical value of such research, however, has increased given the growing academic and popular interest in sustainability along with the fact that ICs exemplify many sustainable practices (Brenton, 1998;Ergas, 2010;Fromm, 1991;Kasper, 2008;Kirby, 2003;Marcus & Dovey, 1991;Margolis & Entin, 2011;Meltzer, 2005;Moos, Whitfield, Johnson, & Andrey, 2006;Torres-Antonini, 2001;Williams, 2005aWilliams, /b, 2008. Behavior analysis is largely absent from research on contemporary, multigenerational ICs; however, the recent special issue of the Behavior Analyst focused on climate change (Heward & Chance), the establishment of the special interest group Behavior Analysts for Sustainable Societies (BASS), and recent publications in Behavior and Social Issues (Grant, 2010;Newsome & Alavosius, 2011) suggest that sustainability is of increasing interest to behavior analysts.…”