Come Together, Emma Goldman's Finishing School in This Magazine

Highly organized and efficient—and far from being marginal, they're
tackling some of today's most puzzling social problems. Cheri Hanson
tours a few of the best examples.

By Cheri Hanson, This Magazine

What do intentional communities look like? Maybe your mind has
already hit image overdrive: hippie crash pads littered with bongs;
tie-dye decor; Jimi Hendrix wafting through the marijuana haze;
blenders clogged with organic sludge; dogs, goats and chickens ranging
around a ramshackle farmyard; dysentery.

Clichés? Absolutely. And in today’s intentional communities,
these scenarios are not just stereotypical—they’re completely
inaccurate. Across North America, and around the world, thousands of
people are living collectively. Rather than dropping out of mainstream
society, many of these groups are committed to revolution from within.
Some even work closely—take a deep breath here—with their local
governments, rather than rallying against them. Clearly, the times they
are a-changing.

“All through history, intentional communities have been like
society’s research and development centres,” says Geoph Kozeny, a U.S.
community consultant, filmmaker and self-proclaimed zealot for the
co-operative living cause. Despite often being “seen as weird,” says
Kozeny, alternative community-builders are pioneers searching for new
ways to address ongoing human concerns. Economics, environmental
sustainability, urban alienation—these are hardly fringe issues.

Every group has its own vision, but rather than surrendering
their lives to social accident, intentional communities are all
tackling human challenges with practical idealism—tie-dye and daisy
wreathes optional.

COMMONS SENSE

From the outside, the Cranberry Commons development in Burnaby,
B.C., looks like any other family-oriented condo project. The neutral,
peak-roofed buildings hug an inner courtyard littered with toys and
colourful chalk scribbles. But aesthetics are where the similarities
end.

In the early 1990s, a tiny core group began dreaming of a
socially and environmentally conscious home base. They tapped their
tangled personal networks to find like-minded dreamers, and set the
planning wheels in motion. In October 2001, 22 households moved into
the multi-family residential building and began to taste the rewards of
a nearly decade-long development process.

June McFadyen, a retired teaching assistant, offers the
official tour through the 320 square-metre common house, which features
a large kitchen, dining area, children’s play room and a pull-down
screen for watching movies. We move on to the guest accommodations,
community office and her own bright, two-bedroom apartment. Warm and
energetic, McFadyen looks years short of her upcoming 80th birthday. A
former neighbour introduced her to cohousing, and McFadyen says the
experience has overhauled her sense of social confidence.

“I was a loner before,” says McFadyen. “It has totally changed
me. I would hardly say a word before, and now I can even lead a
meeting.” McFadyen’s blue eyes sparkle as she sips her tea. “My family
can’t even believe I like it so much. But it’s great. I’m staying.”
Among the seven established Canadian cohousing projects (as
well as the six underway), intense social interaction is the norm.
Cohousing developments make all decisions—from hiring an architect, to
deciding on the building site, to the ongoing business of managing
their communities—by consensus, using a system of red, yellow and green
cards.

The cohousing model was first developed in Denmark over 25
years ago. Unlike co-op housing projects, which require residents to
purchase shares in the co-op and rent their suites, most cohousing
projects use “strata-titled” ownership. It’s a similar structure to
condo ownership: members own their individual units and a percentage of
the common areas.

Ronaye Matthew, a Cranberry Commons resident and an independent
cohousing development consultant, says that unlike mainstream society’s
adversarial systems, cohousing is “based on a collaborative process for
the common good. It’s not about power.”

This sense of collective direction infuses everything from
gardening and maintenance to weekly dinners in the common house. But,
she adds, “We need to be able to look mainstream as much as possible in
order to do what we want to do.” Strata-titled ownership, she explains,
is easy for banks and governments to understand, yet it still allows
the residents to pursue their social and political projects.

Environmental sustainability is also a primary goal. Cranberry
Commons was built with a host of “green” materials and construction
practices. The community also aims to share resources and reduce
redundancy in their travel and purchases. Why should 22 households have
a full toolbox when there are more than enough wrenches to share? And
after nine years of planning and consensual decision-making, you can
probably trust your neighbour to return that cookie sheet unscathed.
Despite her commitment to cohousing, Matthew says she had some
initial concerns about privacy. She works from home, so imagining a
constant stream of visitors at the door was more than a little
disconcerting. In reality, Matthew says the daily balance between
social and private life has actually helped her to set personal
boundaries.

“You don’t have to give up your life to take part in
cohousing,” says Matthew. “The more of us who learn how to think this
way and work this way, the better we’ll be able to help steward the
planet.”

COMMUNING WITH NATURE

On a 25-acre parcel of land in Vancouver Island’s Shawnigan Lake
region, the residents of One United Resource (our) Ecovillage are not
only working to minimize their environmental footprint, but they are
also teaching others how to tread more lightly on the earth. Like other
ecovillages, our aims to integrate human activities with the natural
environment in a way that can be sustained indefinitely. In 213
worldwide settlements listed with the Global Ecovillage Network, people
are striving for a lifestyle that nurtures healthy social and
ecological relationships, far beyond simply adding a solar panel or two
to their roofs.

The village has been working closely with government and local
officials to move their development away from the margins and ensure
its legitimacy in the eyes of the surrounding community, says Brandy
MacPherson, one of the group’s founding directors. our Ecovillage
applied for a previously non-existent zoning classification: a
rural/residential/comprehensive development zone. Last fall, it passed
through all the bureaucratic and government channels.

“This is incredible,” says MacPherson, “because it’s really
setting a precedent in Canada.” The zoning ensures that the ecovillage
can be at once a residential settlement, an educational centre and a
working farm, while retaining the environmental protection covenants
that cover the property.

The community has played by the rules in order to bend them,
and now, they help other fledgling ecovillages do the same, by offering
our’s legal documents as models and sharing their expertise. It’s
crucial to ensure all the legal bases are covered, says MacPherson.
“Otherwise, that jeopardizes the planning and development work that
people do.”

After 12 years of dreaming and building, MacPherson should know
a thing or two about planning. Before the private group purchased the
land, hundreds of people helped develop our’s vision of land
stewardship and its cluster-housing design. Even after they came on the
site, MacPherson says the 14 team members “sat with the land” for a
full year before they established the permaculture systems and land
management practices. The group lived together in the main house and
did little more than cleaning and fixing fences. The idea was to change
as little as possible until they understood what was already there.

About two years ago, our began conducting on-site educational
workshops and environmental programs. While the group’s vision is still
evolving, MacPherson says the goal is for about 30 people to live on
the land and develop a fully sustainable permaculture system. The
ownership model will likely be a modified co-op structure, with members
sharing costs, but not income. They also hope to step up their
educational work with programs such as this summer’s four-month plan-b
natural building school, which has drawn instructors in cob, straw bale
and other natural construction techniques.

“We see this as a learning community,” says MacPherson. “It’s really about co-creating our learning and awareness.”

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

With full income- and cost-sharing, and a commitment to
eliminate the “isms” of age, gender, class, race, sexuality and beyond,
egalitarian communities are a social U-turn from the mainstream.
Harkening back to the communes of the 1960s, most egalitarian
communities have the same spirit of groundbreaking idealism—but less of
the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.

In the heart of Seattle’s Central district, two separate urban
communes are re-creating a typically rural model of egalitarian
community life. The Beacon Hill House and the Jolly Ranchers live in
privately owned homes, and each share their income, costs and
resources.

Seven founding members established the community, and while
their numbers have gone up and down throughout the commune’s seven-year
history, they are now down to three. Rancher Shawn Young and her
partner Jon Dumont, along with longtime friend Marc Cote, were part of
the core group that established the two-home property in March 1995.
While the Ranchers are happy in their small community, they are
looking for more long-term members who share both their ideals and
their vision of social, ecological and economic harmony. “At three, we
don’t have quite enough people to get us over the edge to real
financial freedom,” says Young. “That’s a little frustrating. We don’t
feel very vital.”

Egalitarian communities require a high social and personal
commitment, so they’re not an easy sell. Most of the seven members of
the Federation of Egalitarian Communities are rural developments with
income from cottage industries. Twin Oaks, which was founded in Louisa,
Virginia, in 1967, supports itself by making hammocks, tofu and soy
foods, and running a book-indexing business. On 465 acres of farm and
forest land, this rural community is probably the most famous of the
surviving 1960s communes.

Now that urban life is the reality for most people, it’s even
more challenging to attract people to the egalitarian lifestyle. “In
the country communes, people do the same work,” Young observes. “But in
the city, you’re all out in competitive wage jobs.” When members bring
in varying amounts of money, this can lead to conflict.
One thing that helps the Ranchers avoid arguments over
finances, is that all three members do the same kind of paid work:
They’re employed by a group home for developmentally disabled adults.
The members deposit their monthly paycheques in a common account, which
they use to pay bills and cover household expenses. Each Rancher also
receives a $200 monthly spending allowance. The group’s commitment to
total equality means that sharing income is more than just
pragmatic—it’s a conscious political choice. “All time should be valued
the same,” says Young. “The only currency we have on the planet is our
life and our time.”

Income sharing means greater freedom from capitalist systems,
says Young, and more opportunities to pursue charity work or political
activism. The Ranchers host out-of-town protesters for events such as
the 1999 wto meetings and contribute their time and energy to a host of
activist organizations—from Food Not Bombs to Earth First!
Communal living also offers the chance to explore your inner
worlds, says Young, which requires careful listening and conscious
communication skills. That means building on your strengths, working on
your weaknesses, and understanding your own psychological motivations.
It can be emotional, intimate work, but, says Young, “I think that’s
the greatest gift of community.”

SHARING RESOURCES

Looking to start your own intentional community? Diana Leafe
Christian is the editor of Communities magazine, and the author of
Creating a Life Together (New Society Publishers), which offers
practical, how-to information based on the experiences of founders of
successful communities. She recommends the following resources.

ORGANIZATIONS

Canadian Cohousing Network is a non-profit organization that promotes the creation of cohousing communities across Canada. www.cohousing.ca
Ecovillage Network of Canada is the Canadian affiliate of Ecovillage
Network of the Americas (ENA) and the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN),
which supports and encourages sustainable settlements worldwide.
enc.ecovillage.org. The Cohousing Network promotes and encourages
cohousing communities in North America. Publishes Cohousing magazine
and an email newsletter.www.cohousing.org.

Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) is a membership organization
serving intentional communities and community-seekers in North America.
Publishes Communities magazine, Visions of Utopia video, Communities
Directory, Community Library Reprint Series and audiotapes on various
aspects of community living; offers mail-order books and resources
about intentional community living through its Community Bookshelf;
hosts regional communities gatherings. The FIC website lists
intentional communities and offers links to individual community
websites. www.ic.org

BOOKS

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Kathryn
McCamant, Charles Durrett, and Ellen Hertzman (Ten Speed Press). The
book that introduced cohousing to North America. $29.95. www.tenspeedpress.com
The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community by Chris Hanson
(Hartley & Marks). Practical advice and step-by-step processes for
forming a core group, and developing and building cohousing
communities. www.cohousingresources.com
Ecovillage Living: Restoring the Earth and Her People by Hildur Jackson
and Karen Svensson, Editors (Gaia Trust/ Green Books). Overview of the
ecovillage movement worldwide, with articles, interviews, and photo
essays about ecological, social and spiritual-cultural aspects of
ecovillages on six continents. ena.ecovillage.org/English. Click on
Ecovillage Store.
www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2003/05/cometogether.php