An introduction to communal living
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[edit] Philosophy, Culture
This is a stub. Our idea is that this would be a broad overview of the philosophical and cultural context that communities come out of / tend to operate within............
[edit] Forms of Community
Quite what constitutes an intentional community has been widely debated in both academic circles and amongst participants. Groups that now fall under the umbrella heading of ‘intentional communities’ have in the past variously been called, amongst other things, ‘communes’, ‘communal experiments’, ‘utopian communities’, ‘utopian experiments’ ‘model villages,’ ‘land colonies’ and ‘alternative societies’. And today would also include; cohousing projects, eco-villages, low-impact living groups, housing co-operatives, ashrams and religious retreat houses.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, says an intentional community is “a planned residential community with a much higher degree of social interaction than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political or spiritual vision and share responsibilities and resources.” A more refined description comes from American academic Lyman Tower Sargent who defines an intentional community “as a group of five or more adults and their children, if any, who come from more than one nuclear family and who have chosen to live together to enhance their shared values or for some other mutually agreed upon purpose". He goes on to say that - they are the homes of social dreamers and that they are founded in discontent with the now and their members are deeply critical of the status quo." The Three Faces of Utopianism Revisited’, Lyman Tower Sargent, Utopian Studies 5 (1), 1-37 1994
More recent research in the UK by Lucy Sargisson from the School of Politics at the University of Nottingham has placed the various strands of communal living in a wider utopian context considering "many intentional communities (to) embody utopian aspirations, experiment with utopian dreams and live out utopian desires." It is her view that Intentional communities are "groups of people who have chosen to live (and sometimes work) together for some common purpose. Their raison d’être goes beyond tradition, personal relationships or family ties. They are places where people try alternatives and try to live their dreams on a daily basis" Utopia and Intentional Communities, Lucy Sargisson, Paper for discussion at the ECPR Conference at Uppsala 2004
Perhaps the simplest definition comes from Andy Wood when trying to paint a broad picture of the various communal ventures in the UK in the first Diggers & Dreamers Guide to Communal Living, "Very generally, communal living can be described as situations in which people knowingly and willingly share aspects of living accommodation and material goods" ‘History and Overview’, in Diggers and Dreamers: The 1990/91 Guide to Communal Living, Andy Wood Ansell, Coates, Dawling, How,; Morris & Wood. (eds.), , pp. 6-16 (1989),
As editors of D&D we have somewhat ducked the question ‘What is an intentional community?’ when considering entries for our directory, stating in the front of each directory that we have ‘always decided that we should trust the groups and allow them to decide for themselves, whether or not they should be included.’ This has led to a very wide variety of groups being listed in the book over the years; from small shared households, close classic ‘communes’, looser village type situations, craftwork based groups, urban activist households, organic farms, groups running new age conference centres, right through to monastic orders.
We see this broad spectrum of forms and types of community as a real strength of communal living – that the same communal solutions can be applied to a whole number of seemingly very different social situations show that the basic premises and principals are robust and can clearly be successful almost whatever the motivations of the participants. This appears to be apparent when looking back at historic communities as well as in contemporary ones. Writing about communal groups of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Chris Coates observed that “The communities established by artistic visionaries show a variety of form comparable to those established by religious groups; varying from the loose supportive networks of individuals living close to each other, through those gathered around a charismatic individual, to some that are verging on the institutional. The reasons for establishing them also bear comparison; escape from hostility, freedom to explore new practices and creeds, companionship, economy, co-operation, education … There is probably some sort of matrix of form and structure that would be applicable to all utopian communities, whatever the source of their foundation and raison d’être. A common set of community structures that get reinvented whenever people come together for whatever purpose.” Utopia Britannica; British Utopian Experiments 1325 – 1945 , Chris Coates (2001),
On this basis we hope that the information in this manual is useful to the widest possible cross section of people interested or involved in communal living. Whether you are looking for a rural farming community or live in an urban activists housing co-op. Or even if you are a Buddhist monk in a religious retreat we hope that you will find the information here useful to you.
Different forms of community – All different but the same
Sometime in the 1990’s we as an editorial team decided to stop meeting in our own communities and go out into the wider world of intentional communities and hold our meetings at a wide range of other groups. Partly to get a feel for the different groups that sent in entries for the directory and to do some networking, but also, if we’re honest, out of a little bit of curiosity – to see other people’s take on communal living.
It is very easy when living in the communal thick of it to think that you are the only people to have faced this or that challenge, or had to deal with some situation that just wouldn’t occur if you lived on your own. Most of us have so few reference points from our home and family backgrounds when it comes to dealing with some facets of communal life and there is no handy community helpline to call on, which can lead to thinking that our situation is unique to our community. What we got from visiting a whole cross section of groups across the country was a perspective on how, even though each one was very different in terms of set up, buildings, legal structures, vision and history, how similar they felt and how much they had in common with other groups often without knowing it.
EXAMPLES - please expand the following notes:
Classic big house community: In many ways the communities in set up in country houses of various sizes have become the architypal 'commune' of popular imagination. They are a particular feature of post WW2 communal living. Due to the surplus of small to medium country houses after the war. Many of them go through a similar pattern of; wartime forces requisition - life as some kind of insitution in the years after the war(hospital/nursing home....) - then sold off relativly cheaply when they become either unfit for purpose ot the maintenance bills get too high for the authorities - At which point they were bought by budding communards. Others came on the market through farm amalgamation or through sales to cover death duties. The 'hey-day' of the country house commune in the uk is seen as the 1970's, but they can be found popping up from the late 1940's through to the early 1990's when prices start to put them beyond the reach of communal groups. Though the occasional one still manages to make an appearance despite the obstacle of obscene 21st Century house prices.
See: Birchwood[1] Lauriston Hall[2] Redfield[3] Bowden House[4] for examples.
Urban shared house(s)
See: Equinox[5] Corani[6] Crescent Road[7] for examples.
Land based "Back to the land!" has been the rallying call of communards for centuries from the 17th Century Diggers[8] through the Chartist land settlements[9] and the Anarchist land colonies[10] to the present Low Impact developments[11]. Buying land and establishing a succesful land based community have not proved easy and the number of groups making a living off the land is small. Most supplementing their income with outside jobs. There are a number of communal modles for land settlement. There are a few communities that in effect manage to run a small farm or smallholding alongside other activities, there are groups lving in woodland focusing thier activities on woodland management and there are groups living in tipis, benders and yurts often slipping under the radar of local planners or battling with them for the right to live on the land.[12]
See: Old Hall [13] Steward Wood [14] Tipi Valley[15] for examples.
Cohousing An increasingly popular model for setting up community that started in Scandanavia in the 1970's & 60's. It aims to be purpose designed mini neighbourhood where people have thier own self-contained accommodation and personal space as well as sharing communal facilities. They have a common house at the centre of the community where members can meet for meals and socialise. In the UK groups have found it difficult to get off the ground mainly due to the problems in finding suitable land or property that they can afford.
See: Springhill[16] Laughton Lodge[17] Lancaster Cohousing[18] for examples
Ecovillage
Based round business focus
Spiritual – structured / hierarchical ……network - Neighbours
Educational conference centre
Retreat Othona
Social work focus – Camphill
Communities of Prayer
Communal living as a way of life as opposed to part of another path.
Forms of community (temporary and permanent, Community Building in Britain)
[edit] The Communes Movement
From the outside it might appear that there is something that could be called a ‘communes movement’ - a politically motivated underground communal tendency whose aim is to transform society from the inside-out – and indeed in the past there was even an organisation that went by that very name. But in reality joint working between groups has been somewhat patchy & ad hoc and anything resembling a movement something of a chimera. (please give more details of numbers involved etc)
That’s not to say that there haven’t been times when various group have worked closely together. In the 1970’s & 80’s there were regular gatherings and conferences under the banner of the Communes Network and regular work swaps between communities with similar interests. More recently there have been gatherings of communities under the guise of an annual volley ball tournament – this has offered great informal networking opportunities as well as a lively social event.
Various networks have and do still exist. NACCAN, the National Association of Christian Communities and Networks, (please expand) Radical Routes, Ecovillages Network & Camphill communities (see: links on D&D website for details of those still active.) These offer some support, both practical and social, for those looking to set up or join a particular kind of community. There are also a number of national networks in other countries that have websites that provide useful information and resources.
“Members of intentional communities often share a vision of the good life and are attempting to realise this in the here and now. However, these communities are not perfect. Their members view them as better than life in the mainstream, or life ‘outside’, but not as utopia realised. It would probably be more accurate to describe them as utopias in process. Members feel that living collectively and exploring alternatives is better than remaining where they were. Often it is hard, physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually, but they say, it is worth the effort.” Lucy Sargisson ; Utopia and Intentional Communities, Paper for discussion at the ECPR Conference at Uppsala 2004
[edit] Motivations
This is a stub. Our idea is that this would be about why people want to live with other people. These could be personal motivations, political convictions or to follow a spiritual path...... or perhaps you have another reason for doing it?
[edit] Definitions
We thought it would be useful if there was a sort of glossary of terms/words/ideas that crop up regularly when talking about communal living that may not be familiar to general readers, or which have a particular meaning or usage within communal groups. Such as; errr... consensus decision making or Cohousing common house... please add your own definitions or request one for a word you find perplexing in the glossary section under Miscellaneous.
