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An ecovillage is a traditional or
intentional community
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...
with the
goal
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...
of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically
sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural environment through intentional physical design and resident behavior choices. It is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes to regenerate and restore its social and natural environments. Most range from a population of 50 to 250 individuals, although some are smaller, and traditional ecovillages are often much larger. Larger ecovillages often exist as networks of smaller sub-communities. Some ecovillages have grown through like-minded individuals, families, or other small groups—who are not members, at least at the outset—settling on the ecovillage's periphery and participating ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' in the community.
Ecovillagers are united by shared
ecological
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
,
social-economic
The social economy is formed by a rich diversity of enterprises and organisations, such as cooperatives, mutuals, associations, foundations, social enterprises and paritarian institutions, sharing common values and features:
* Primacy of the i ...
and
cultural-spiritual values.
[Van Schyndel Kasper, D. (2008)]
"Redefining Community in the Ecovillage."
''Human Ecology Review'' 15:12–24. Retrieved on July 28, 2018. Concretely, ecovillagers seek alternatives to ecologically destructive electrical, water, transportation, and waste-treatment systems, as well as the larger social systems that mirror and support them. Many see the breakdown of traditional forms of community, wasteful
consumerist
''Consumerist'' (also known as ''The Consumerist'') was a non-profit consumer affairs website owned by Consumer Media LLC, a subsidiary of '' Consumer Reports'', with content created by a team of full-time reporters and editors. The site's foc ...
lifestyles, the destruction of natural habitat,
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
,
factory farming
Intensive animal farming or industrial livestock production, also known by its opponents as factory farming and macro-farms, is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production, while ...
, and over-reliance on fossil fuels as trends that must be changed to avert ecological disaster and create richer and more fulfilling ways of life.
Ecovillages offer small-scale communities with
minimal ecological impact or regenerative impacts as an alternative. However, such communities often cooperate with peer villages in networks of their own (''see''
Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) for an example). This model of
collective action
Collective action refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences including psych ...
is similar to that of
Ten Thousand Villages
Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit fair trade organization that markets handcrafted products made by disadvantaged artisans from more than 120 artisan groups in more than 35 countries.
As one of the world’s largest and oldest fair trade or ...
, which supports the
fair trade
Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...
of goods worldwide.
Definition
Multiple sources define ecovillages as a subtype of intentional communities focussing on sustainability. More pronounced definitions are listed here:
In Joubert's view, ecovillages are seen as an ongoing process, rather than a particular outcome. They often start off with a focus on one of the four dimensions of sustainability, e.g. ecology, but evolve into holistic models for restoration. In this view, aiming for sustainability is not enough; it is vital to restore and regenerate the fabric of life and across all four dimensions of sustainability: social, environmental, economic and cultural.
Ecovillages have developed in recent years as technology has improved, so they have more sophisticated structures as noted by Baydoun, M. 2013.
Generally, the ecovillage concept is not tied to specific sectarian (religious, political, corporate) organizations or belief systems not directly related to environmentalism, such as monasteries, cults, or communes.
History
The modern-day desire for community was notably characterized by the communal "back to the land" movement of the 1960s and 1970s through communities such as the earliest example that still survives, the
Miccosukee Land Co-op
The Miccosukee Land Cooperative (MLC) is a cohousing community (a kind of intentional community). It is located near Tallahassee, in northeastern Leon County, Florida.
Administration
The community consists of about 120 households and is go ...
co-founded in May 1973 by James Clement van Pelt in Tallahassee, Florida. In the same decades, the imperative for alternatives to radically inefficient energy-use patterns, in particular automobile-enabled
suburban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
, was brought into focus by recurrent energy crises. The term "eco-village" was introduced by Georgia Tech Professor George Ramsey in a 1978 address, "Passive Energy Applications for the Built Environment", to the First World Energy Conference of the Association of Energy Engineers, to describe small-scale, car-free, close-in developments, including suburban infill, arguing that "the great energy waste in the United States is not in its technology; it is in its lifestyle and concept of living." Ramsey's article includes a sketch for a "self-sufficient pedestrian solar village" by one of his students that looks very similar to eco-villages today.
The movement became more focused and organized in the
cohousing
Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around shared space. The term originated in Denmark in late 1960s. Each attached or single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen. Shared spaces typica ...
and related alternative-community movements of the mid-1980s. Then, in 1991,
Robert Gilman and
Diane Gilman co-authored a germinal study called "Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities" for Gaia Trust, in which the ecological and communitarian themes were brought together.
The first Eco-Village in North America began its first stages in 1990. Earthaven Eco-Village in Black Mountain, NC was the first community called an Eco-Village and was designed using permaculture (holistic) principles. The first residents moved onto the vacant land in 1993. As of 2019 Earthaven Eco-Village has over 70 families living off the grid on 368 acres of land.
The ecovillage movement began to coalesce at the annual autumn conference of
Findhorn
Findhorn ( gd, Inbhir Èir or ''Inbhir Èireann'') is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 ...
, in Scotland, in 1995. The conference was called: "Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities", and conference organizers turned away hundreds of applicants. According to
Ross Jackson
Ross Jackson is a Danish-Canadian economist, author and philanthropist born in Ottawa, Canada in 1938. In 1971, Ross Jackson co-founded SimCorp A/S: one of the world's first financial engineering companies. Later, Jackson began focusing more on i ...
, "somehow they had struck a chord that resonated far and wide. The word 'ecovillage'... thus became part of the language of the
Cultural Creatives
''The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World'' is a nonfiction social sciences and sociology book by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson (born 1942), The authors introduced the term "Cultural ...
."
[Jackson, Ross (Summer, 2004)]
"The Ecovillage Movement."
''Permaculture Magazine'' 40. Retrieved on: 2011-08-11. After that conference, many intentional communities, including Findhorn, began calling themselves "ecovillages", giving birth to a new movement. The
Global Ecovillage Network, formed by a group of about 25 people from various countries who had attended the Findhorn conference, crystallized the event by linking hundreds of small projects from around the world, that had similar goals but had formerly operated without knowledge of each other. Gaia Trust of Denmark agreed to fund the network for its first five years.
[ Today, there are self-identified ecovillages in over 70 countries on six continents.][Taggart, Jonathan (Nov-Dec, 2009)]
Inside an ecovillage
bNet - CBS Interactive Business Network. Retrieved on: 2011-08-11.
Since the 1995 conference, a number of the early members of the Global Ecovillage Network have tried other approaches to ecovillage building in an attempt to build settlements that would be attractive to mainstream culture in order to make sustainable development more generally accepted. One of these with some degree of success is Living Villages Living Villages is an organisation in the United Kingdom established in 1993 as part of The Athena Foundation UK (now dissolved) and as ThLiving Village Trustin 1997 by Carole Salmon and Bob Tomlinson. The objectives are to encourage sustainable d ...
and The Wintles where eco-houses are arranged so that social connectivity is maximised and residents have shared food growing areas, woodlands, and animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...
for greater sustainability.
The principles on which ecovillages rely can be applied to urban
Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to:
* Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas
* Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities
Urban may also refer to:
General
* Urban (name), a list of people ...
and rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
settings, as well as to developing and developed countries. Advocates seek a sustainable lifestyle (for example, of voluntary simplicity
Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. Not only is ...
) for inhabitants with a minimum of trade outside the local area, or ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
. Many advocates also seek independence from existing infrastructures, although others, particularly in more urban settings, pursue more integration with existing infrastructure. Rural ecovillages are usually based on organic farming
Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...
, permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...
and other approaches which promote ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
function and biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
. Ecovillages, whether urban or rural, tend to integrate community and ecological values within a principle-based approach to sustainability, such as permaculture design.
Johnathan Dawson, former president of the Global Ecovillage Network, describes five ecovillage principles in his 2006 book ''Ecovillages: New Frontiers for Sustainability'':
# They are not government-sponsored projects, but grassroots initiatives.
# Their residents value and practice community living.
# Their residents are not overly dependent on government, corporate, or other centralized sources for water, food, shelter, power, and other basic necessities. Rather, they attempt to provide these resources themselves.
# Their residents have a strong sense of shared values, often characterized in spiritual terms.
# They often serve as research and demonstration sites, offering educational experiences for others.[
]
Governance
Effective governance is important within ecovillages. It provides a model to implement and promote sustainable lifestyles (Cunningham and Wearing, 2013). While the first generation of ecovillagers tended to adopt consensus decision-making
Consensus decision-making or consensus process (often abbreviated to ''consensus'') are group decision-making processes in which participants develop and decide on proposals with the aim, or requirement, of acceptance by all. The focus on es ...
as a governance method, some difficulties with consensus as an everyday decision-making method emerged: it can be extremely time-intensive, and decisions too often could be blocked by a few intransigent members. More recently many ecovillages have moved toward sociocracy
Sociocracy is a theory of governance that seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shar ...
and related alternative decision-making methods.
In addition, ecovillages look for alternative forms of government, with an emphasis on deeper connections with ecology than economics.
See also
References
Kellogg, W. Keating, W. (2011), "Cleveland's Ecovillage: green and affordable housing through a network alliance", Housing Policy Debate, 21 (1), pp. 69–91
Cunningham, Paul A. and Wearing, Stephen L.(2013).The Politics of Consensus: An Exploration of the Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland. lectronic version Cosmopolitan Civil Societies. 5(2) pp. 1–28
Further reading
;Books
* Christian, D. 2003. ''Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities'' New Society Publishers.
* Dawson, Jonathan (2006) ''Ecovillages: Angelica Buenaventura for Sustainability.'' Green Books.
*Hill, R. and Dunbar, R. 2002
"Social Network Size in Humans."
Human Nature, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 53–72.
*Jackson, H. and Svensson, K. 2002. ''Ecovillage Living: Restoring the Earth and Her People''. Green Books.
*Walker, Liz. 2005 ''EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture''. New Society Publishers
Sunarti, Euis (eds.)
2009. ''Model of Ecovillage Development: Development of Rural Areas in Order To Improve Quality of Life for Rural Residents'', Indonesia.
*Joubert, Kosha and Dregger, Leila 2015.
Triarchy Press.
* Christian, Diana L. (ed.
The Ecovillage Movement Today
Ecovillage Newsletter.
* Gilman, Robert (ed.
In Context.
* Genovese, Paolo Vincenzo (2019), ''Being Light on the Earth. Eco-Village Policy and Practice for a Sustainable World'', Libria, Melfi, Vol. I., ISDN 978-88-6764-187-1. Also in eBook.
* Frederica Miller, Ed. (2018)
Ecovillages Around the World: 20 Regenerative Designs for Sustainable Communities
'' - Rochester, Vermont, Findhorn Press,
External links
*Global Ecovillage Networ
eurotopia - Living in Community: European Directory of Communities and Ecovillages
Fellowship for Intentional Community: Ecovillage Directory
Wanderer's End Tactical & Practical Ecovillage Network of the Americas
{{Sustainability
Ecovillages,
Urban studies and planning terminology
Environmental design
Simple living