Intentional Communities in Rural Spaces

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on intentional communities in the Western world. These communities consist of a variety of groups, with different characteristics, ideologies and motivations. Examples are eco-villages, religious communities and communities of lesbians. These groups intend, at least to some extent, to withdraw from mainstream urban society, challenging norms of urban life, e.g. wasteful behaviour, stressful lives or heterosexual stereotypes, and create their own places in rural areas. Key questions that we seek to address in the paper are: What types of intentional communities can be identified? To what extent are intentional communities withdrawn from the rural areas in which they are established? We attempt to answer these through discussing the results of a survey among 496 communities. Furthermore, we describe an example of the ecological type of community, since these communities are most explicitly challenging urban norms and values. Copyright (c) 2007 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.

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

“…Experimental Community (Skinner, 1968) Intentional Community (Meijering, Huigen, & Van Hoven, 2007) Regarding the research utility of experimental communities, Skinner observed:…”

“…An empirically established typology based on the degree of social, geographical, economic, and ideological withdrawal from the mainstream among ICs in Europe, North America, and Oceania yielded four types of communities: religious (most withdrawn), ecological, communal, and practical (most integrated; Meijering, Huigen, & Van Hoven, 2007). These types are not fixed and exclusive.…”

“…There are roughly 700 established ICs in the US and over 1,000 currently forming. Skinner's (1968) definition of experimental community is comparable to the most cited criteria of IC (Meijering, Huigen, & Van Hoven, 2007; Table 1). The main distinctions between the two include that Skinner discussed experimental communities as societies in microcosm, with a large degree of isolation from mainstream society and a relatively large, heterogeneous population, whereas ICs are, on average, much smaller, can be homogeneous (e.g., senior cohousing-see Durrett, 2009, and student co-ops), and vary in terms of their social, economic, ideological, and geographic withdrawal.…”

Making Room for People : Choice, Voice and Liveability in Residential Areas

“…org). Citizen groups who take the initiative to develop a housing project are often motivated by special needs or ambitions regarding their environment (Meijering et al, 2007). Since the 1980s in the Netherlands a number of dwellers groups have clearly articulated these needs and developed new spatial models.…”

Egy új világ építése egészen alulról? Komplex ökologikus életmód-alternatívát megvalósító helyi közösségek a vidéki Magyarországon

“…Nem csupán saját tapasztalataim mutatják azt, hogy kevés a nemzetközi szakirodalom a komplex ökologikus életmód-alternatívára törekvő helyi közösségek témájában, hanem egy közel-múltbeli, szisztematikus felmérés is megerősíti ezt, legalábbis az ökofalvak esetében (Wagner 2012). Ezek is inkább esettanulmányok, összehasonlító elemzéseket csak elvétve találni, mindössze három ilyenre bukkantam: Kasper (2008), Meijering et al (2007) és Metcalf (2012). Ehhez képest arányaiban több, döntően magyar nyelvű szakirodalom létezik a hazai ökologikus helyi közösségekről, ám az abszolút száma ezeknek is elég csekély.…”