Intentional communities links

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Directories / listings / networks

Camphill England & Wales – network of communities for people with learning disabilities and special needs

The Camphill Movement – international directory

Diggers & Dreamers – UK listing – this site is all you need for the UK

Eurotopia – catalogue of communities in Europe

Federation of Egalitarian Communities – network of intentional communities in North America

Global Eco-village Network – global federation of ecological communities

Global Ecovillage Network Europe – list of sustainable settlements / initiatives in Europe

Foundation for Intentional Community – listing of US and international communities, plus ‘Communities’ magazine

International Communes Desk – networking / communication group started in 1976 in Tel Aviv – publish the CALL newsletter

General

Asset Transfer Unit – supports the transfer of land and buildings from public bodies to community and voluntary organisations

Daily Mail – inside America’s oldest hippie commune

Ecological Land Co-op – ground-breaking group helping change the planning system to allow new-build communities in England

The Ecovillage Movement – paper on the potential for ecovillages

The Independent – good article about Lammas and new communites’ potential for offering a viable alternative to the rat race

International Communal Studies Association – research, documentation and international conferences on communal living – past & present, academic & practial

Living Village Trust – environmentally-friendly developers

New York Times – article about a new wave of young professionals flocking to communes in San Francisco

Personal development links – for links on conflict resolution and consensus

Redfield Community – where Lowimpact.org was born

What is an Ecovillage? – paper outlining the historical attempts to define the concept

Wikipedia – ecovillage

Wikipedia – intentional community

WWOOF – go and visit and work on communities via WWOOF

History

The Diggers – agrarian collective led by Gerard Winstanley in the 17th century

Ejido – communal agricultural based on an Aztec system, and re-introduced as a constitutional right (but scrapped by NAFTA) in Mexico in the 20th century

The Essenes – the first (intentional) communards? 2nd century BC next to the Dead Sea

Fourier, Charles – 19th century French philosopher with quite intricate ideas about communal living; started communities in the US, including Utopia, Ohio

Owen, Robert – started utopian communities in Scotland and the US in the 19th century

The Shakers – religious group who lived communally in North America in the 18th and early 19th centuries

Ujamaa – communal agricultural system introduced by Julius Nyerere in Tanzania in the 1960s; the World Bank refused loans until it was disestablished from the state

Wikipedia – list of American utopian communities from the 19th century

Religious communes

Amish – simple-living Christian communities in North America

Ashrams – Hindu spiritual communities

Bruderhof – international network of Christian communities

Hutterites – over 40,000 people in around 500 ‘colonies’, mainly in North America

Mennonites – 1.7 million strong Christian sect that can be found in tight-knit communities in 82 countries

Monasteries – Buddhist or Christian spiritual communities