Twin Oaks Community is an
ecovillage
An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural envi ...
and
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, ...
of about one hundred people
living on in
Louisa County, Virginia
Louisa County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,596. The county seat is Louisa.
History
Prior to colonial settlement, the area comprising Louisa County was occupied by severa ...
.
It is a member of the
Federation of Egalitarian Communities
The Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC) is a group of egalitarian communitiesO'Brien, EllenSome communes have survived -- and prospered -- beyond the '60s.''Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.'' 23 Sept. 1996. which have joined together wi ...
. Founded in 1967,
it is one of the longest-enduring and largest secular intentional communities in North America.
The community's basic values are
cooperation
Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...
,
egalitarianism
Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...
,
nonviolence
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
,
sustainability
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 livi ...
, and income sharing. About 100 adults and 17 children live in the community.
Founding
The community was founded on a tobacco farm in 1967
by a group of eight individuals with no farming experience that included
Kat Kinkade
Kathleen "Kat" Kinkade (December 6, 1930 – July 3, 2008) was one of the eight co-founders of Twin Oaks Community, Twin Oaks, an intentional community in Virginia inspired by the behaviorist utopia depicted in B.F. Skinner's book Walden Two. ...
, who wrote two books about the community.
The community's initial inspiration was
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
...
's novel ''
Walden Two
''Walden Two'' is a utopian novel written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, first published in 1948. In its time, it could have been considered science fiction, since science-based methods for altering people's behavior did not yet exis ...
,'' which describes a fictional
behaviorist
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual' ...
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
. However, Skinner's vision quickly faded from prominence at Twin Oaks, as behaviorist principles were abandoned in favor of egalitarian principles. The community struggled greatly during its first few years, as member turnover was high and the community members didn't earn much income. According to Kinkade, the community avoided the problems of laziness, freeloading, and excessive lack of structure stereotypically associated with communes by adopting a structured, yet flexible, labor system.
Modified versions of the community's initial organizational structure and labor credit system survive to this day. As in Skinner's novel, the original labor credit system utilized "variable" credit hours. Certain jobs were worth more credit hours than others in order to make each job desirable. What the community found once the population reached about 40 is that there was neither universally desirable work, nor undesirable work and the variable credit hour system created distortions in which work was getting done. The modified version of this plan in place today uses "standardized" credits; each job in the community is valued the same in terms of credit hours.
Life as a member
![Verminweaving](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Verminweaving.jpg)
Twin Oaks has approximately 100 members.
People interested in joining Twin Oaks must attend a scheduled three-week visitor period.
During this period, visitors tour the community and attend orientations on various aspects of membership. Unlike most co-housing situations, there is no cost to join the community, nor any rent or ongoing costs associated with living there.
Basic necessities—housing, clothing, food, health care—are all provided to members in return for their 42 weekly hours of work.
Since 2011, Twin Oaks has consistently had a waiting list, so visitors who are accepted for membership need to wait typically three to nine months before they can join. Before a new member can join, while the community is at its population capacity, a current member needs to drop membership. Historically, Twin Oaks has expanded its housing when it has had a waiting list for a prolonged period by building new residences and expanding the stock of bedrooms available.
A member of Twin Oaks works around 42
hours a week.
Some labor is directed toward generating income, and the rest consists of domestic work like gardening/food production, cooking, bike repair, building maintenance, cleaning, and child care. Most Twin Oakers perform a wide variety of tasks each week instead of spending all of their time in one labor area.
Members can also choose to work outside of Twin Oaks.
The income from this labor may go to the community, although some portion of it can go into a member's "vacation earnings". Excess labor done in a week accumulates as vacation time.
Though live television viewing is prohibited, Twin Oaks' members have access to the Internet as well as to public computers. Members can also watch movies and tapes of TV programs. People in the community often gather for other recreational activities such as dancing, meditating, discussing literature, staging musicals, and playing board games.
Twin Oaks members are religiously diverse. The membership includes
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
,
Atheists
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
,
Pagans Pagans may refer to:
* Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire
* Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices
* Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series
* Pagan's ...
,
Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, and others. The community hosts Pagan
handfasting
Handfasting is a traditional practice that, depending on the term's usage, may define an unofficiated wedding (in which a couple marries without an officiant, usually with the intent of later undergoing a second wedding with an officiant), a ...
s, Equinox parties, and Thanksgiving dinners, and it celebrates June 16, the anniversary of its founding.
Residents live in dormitory-style living quarters spread out across the community. Each member has a private bedroom, but shares public spaces.
Member turnover is no longer as high as it was in the community's early years,
and many former Twin Oakers live in nearby
Charlottesville
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...
and
Louisa to maintain ties to the community.
The community itself acknowledges that it has yet to create the perfect society; it even provides a guidebook entitled "Not Utopia Yet" to visitors. Those who choose to live at Twin Oaks for several years—including founder Kinkade—sometimes feel "trapped" there. This is because members have little opportunity to build up equity or savings.
[''New York Times Magazine'', 3 August 1997. Daniel Pinchbeck, "Paradise Not Quite Lost," pp. 26-29] The
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 television series ''Utopia: In Search of the Dream'', broadcast on August 15, 2017, devoted an 11-minute segment to Twin Oaks. Members and one former member (the founders' daughter), interviewed by Professor Richard Clay, expressed concerns about the inability to build savings and complex interpersonal relationships.
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 television series ''Utopia: In Search of the Dream''
Community businesses
Twin Oaks' 42-hour work week is divided between domestic and income-producing labor.
Twin Oaks operates several community-owned businesses, including Twin Oaks Tofu, Twin Oaks Hammocks, and Twin Oaks Book Indexing. Additionally, members working in the Twin Oaks Seed Farm grow seeds for
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE) is a cooperatively-owned seed company. SESE is a source for heirloom seeds and other open-pollinated (non-hybrid) seeds with an emphasis on vegetables, flowers, and herbs that grow well in the Mid-Atlantic r ...
. From these sources, Twin Oaks generates around $600,000 per year.
This money pays for community upkeep and goods that cannot be produced on site, and each member receives a monthly
stipend
A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work pe ...
for personal use (i.e., to purchase items that the community does not provide). In news segments, Twin Oakers often attribute the longevity of the community to its engagement in
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
through its tofu and hammocks businesses.
Supporting the communities movement
Twin Oaks has helped establish three sister communities:
Acorn Community
Acorn is a farm-based, anarchist, egalitarian, intentional community located in rural Louisa County, Virginia, United States. It is a member of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. Acorn was started in 1993 as a spin-off community of the o ...
,
about from Twin Oaks,
Living energy farm
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* Hu ...
, also in Louisa County, Virginia; and
East Wind Community
East Wind Community is an intentional community located in the Missouri Ozarks. Founded in 1974, it is a secular and democratic community in which members hold all community assets in common. Each member is also given food, shelter, clothing, medic ...
in south central Missouri.
Twin Oaks also hosts annual intentional community gatherings cosponsored by the
Fellowship for Intentional Community
The Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC), formerly the Fellowship of Intentional Communities then the Fellowship for Intentional Community, provides publications, referrals, support services, and "sharing opportunities" for a wide range of ...
: The Communities Conference,
and the Women's Gathering, both of which take place every August.
Media coverage
The history of Twin Oaks Community is detailed extensively in two books by Kathleen (Kat) Kinkade, one of the co-founders of the community. The first, ''A Walden Two Experiment'',
covers the first five years of the community. The second, ''Is it Utopia Yet?'', covers the next 20 years.
Another book from the 1980s, ''Living the Dream'', by Ingrid Komar (the mother of a member at the time the book was written), also discusses Twin Oaks' history.
About half a dozen dissertations and a dozen master's theses have been written about the community, as well. In 1998, the ''
Washington Post Magazine
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' did a cover story on Twin Oaks.
The
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 television series ''Utopia: In Search of the Dream'', broadcast on August 15, 2017, devoted an 11-minute segment to Twin Oaks. Members and one former member (the founders' daughter), interviewed by Professor Richard Clay, expressed concerns about the inability to build savings, complex interpersonal relationships, limited privacy, and lack of autonomy. Clay observed that 20 percent of the membership turned over annually.
Ecology
Twin Oaks seeks to be a model of sustainability.
The average Twin Oaks member consumes fewer resources than the average American due to the community's practices of resource sharing
and self-sufficiency.
Members hold all resources in common except for the personal items they keep in their bedrooms. For instance, members share housing, a fleet of 17 vehicles, and a large "clothing library".
Twin Oaks members consume 70% less gasoline, 80% less electricity, and 76% less natural gas per capita than do their neighbors.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1967 establishments in Virginia
Ecovillages
Egalitarian communitities
Intentional communities in the United States
Populated places established in 1967
Rural community development
Unincorporated communities in Louisa County, Virginia
Unincorporated communities in Virginia
Utopian communities in the United States