Web Features
The residents of an eco-oriented, education-focused intentional community and demonstration site wear many hats, both public and private.
Strained by difficult economic and ecological conditions, farmers Claudio and Fernando discover new avenues toward prosperity and land restoration through alliances with a peace community dedicated to regional renewal.
After several years teaching about community in the abstract, an anthropologist and environmental studies teacher finds that direct student engagement with intentional communities provides the spark needed for personal inspiration, connection, and the potential for social transformation.
A permaculture teachers hits upon a gold mine of effective methods for enlivening her teaching—by drawing from the principles of permaculture itself.
Also in This Issue (Print Version Only)
· TEACHING HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS IN COMMUNITY
One-day workshops, two-week intensives, two-month apprenticeships, season-long internships, work parties, work exchanges, and other hands-on learning programs all offer unique benefits and challenges for both participants and intentional community members. A veteran teacher and natural builder shares his experiences from Emerald Earth Sanctuary.
· SUSTAINABILITY: REFLECTIONS FROM AN ECO-WARRIOR
Bruce Davidson
A cofounder of Sirius Community traces his path to a broadened understanding of sustainability—one which depends, more than anything else, on a change of consciousness.
· ECOVILLAGES AND ACADEMIA
Daniel Greenberg
Ecovillages offer ideal campuses for sustainability education, but cannot fulfill their potential if cloistered from academia. Building bridges between the two is essential for the survival and relevance of both.
· LEADERSHIP FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: Living Routes in Action at Huehuecoyotl
Giovanni Ciarlo
An action learning program at a Mexican ecovillage offers students real-world lessons in project implementation and community service, while also benefiting residents and neighbors.
· OLYMPIC-SIZED COMMUNITY
Satyama Dawn Lasby
The sustainability coordinator for the biggest event in the world realizes that catering with washable dishware and eliminating bottled water from the green rooms, while laudable, are ultimately just drops in the bucket.
· INTENTIONAL "COLONIES" AND TROPICAL SUSTAINABILITY
Jon Kohl
Intentional communities in developing countries often seem like intentional colonies instead, appealing to the rich and the mobile but inaccessible to local people. Effective sustainability education requires an alternative model.
· TOWARDS A SEVENTH GENERATION
Understanding Israel
Tracing results within her own community, a lifelong educator suggests that time spent teaching children now to love and respect the earth will help us all move towards a sustainable future.
· PERMACULTURE AND HOLISTIC EDUCATION: A Match Made in Heaven...and Earth
Paul Freedman
The founder of Salmonberry School finds that permaculture and holistic education share many common principles, values, and analogous practices, with great potential for integration.
· BUSTED, ALMOST BLUDGEONED, POSSIBLY BROKE: Hard Lessons from the Trenches of Sustainability Education
Lee Icterus
Making your community a home base for sustainability education programs can bring unanticipated challenges, potential pitfalls, and learning experiences no one thought they had signed up for. A survivor shares cautionary tales and tips.
· CAR-REDUCED AND CAR-FREE RURAL COMMUNITIES
Greg Ramsey
In the quest to create eco-communities that can lead us toward a sustainable future, nothing is more important than reducing car dependence—and fortunately, we already know how.
· BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY: BUILDING FOR HEALTH: accommodating people with environmental intolerances in intentional community living
Julie Genser
People with environmental intolerances could be a perfect match for intentional community living if their needs were better understood and met there. Are communities willing to educate themselves and perhaps stretch their definitions of “sustainability” in order to accommodate the environmentally ill?
Voices
· LETTERS: No Avatars Desired, 2010 Cohousing Conference, The Sustainable Human
· PUBLISHER'S NOTE: AFLOAT IN CHOPPY SEAS: Though Our Support is Hot, Our Profits are Not
· MILLER KEEPS THE GEARS TURNING
· CREATING COOPERATIVE CULTURE: AN INVITATION, AND A MUSTACHE ESCAPADE
