Ecovillages: Laboratories for Regenerative Cultures

“If current human systems are unsustainable, it is prudent to look to those who are pioneering sustainable living practices. To ignore communities that are actually reducing their ecological footprints dramatically, that are creating models of sustainability from the ground up, would be intellectually negligent and pragmatically unwise.”

-       Karen Liftin

Lilleoru ecovillage, Estonia

To take a critical look at modernity’s developmental processes and the current capitalist model that shapes them, is to be unavoidably confronted with its devastating environmental impacts and resulting socioeconomic disparities. In response to the gradual disintegration of supportive social and cultural structures and the creeping global ecological crisis, we are seeing the emergence of various intentional initiatives that propose alternative ways of living and relating, based on worldviews that have potential to pave the way in the transition to regenerative ways of life. The ecovillage movement is one such initiative, and a promising one at that.

Contextualizing the Ecovillage Movement

The concept of ‘ecovillage’ was articulated for the first time in 1995, in Scotland, at an international conference on sustainable communities promoted by the Findhorn Foundation. One of the results of this meeting was the creation of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), which works as a platform to develop and disseminate the concept, as well as a link between the various ecovillages and communities around the world that share the same interests and objectives. It also runs research projects and education programs, some of which especially target political organizations like the EU and UNESCO. Today, GEN’s website lists almost 1000 ecovillage projects and networks worldwide, which include both newly founded villages emerging out of the environmentalist movement and traditional villages which aim at ecological and holistic restoration. They are village-scale attempts to create conscious socio-ecological communities whose origins lay, as we can deduce, in the perceived urgency to break with the growth-based and hyper-consumerist capitalist society for its unsustainable modus operandi.

The Culturally Regenerative Nature of Ecovillages

While no single definition does justice to the complex and diverse nature of what an ecovillage can be, the GEN defines it as “a community which uses local participatory processes to holistically integrate 1) social, 2) cultural, 3) economic and 4) ecological dimensions of sustainability in order to regenerate social and natural environments.” It is through holistic, intentional and innovative practices within these four dimensions that ecovillages manifest as hubs of regeneration.

1.     Social Dimension

Economy of Happiness GEN gathering in Bangalore, India

The pragmatic application of the search for new standards of livelihoods and new lifestyle norms is often grounded in community-based models. Rooted in the belief that our culture of competitive hyper-individualism is at the base of many of the challenges we face, ecovillages place a lot of importance on practices that help to build trust, collaboration and openness between people, as to make sure they feel empowered, seen and heard. They do this through adoption of participatory approaches to decision-making such as Sociocracy (i.e. a system of governance which seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations, distinguished by the use of consent rather than majority voting) and Holacracy (i.e. method of decentralized management and organizational governance which claims to distribute authority and decision-making through a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy) – two approaches to dynamic governance that we will explore further in future articles.

In a study about the evolutionary importance of community relations for quality of life, Bjørn Grinde (2009) found that decision-making by consensus, rather than by voting, generates more support for the initiatives in question, helping to create more resilient relationships between the people involved. This philosophy is, sometimes intentionally, sometimes instinctively applied within most ecovillages. For example, in the Dancing Rabbit ecovillage in Missouri, USA, a normal technique used prior to a decision is going around the circle of people present to hear each person’s opinion. “Taking the temperature” with a thumb up, down or in between before a decision is made, allows a chance to adjust the text of a decision to accommodate everyone.

It is worth highlighting the importance that maintaining healthy relationships has, since they are at the foundation of a truly regenerative system. As expressed by Bill Reed in his ‘Sherehifting from ‘sustainability’ to regeneration’ paper, an object by itself cannot be regenerative. The relationships between objects and the fact that they are in constant evolution is what makes them regenerative (refer back to Systems Thinking here, to better understand this claim). Finally, ecovillages often provide a sense of belonging through community relationships, common projects, shared goals, and social processes, but do not demand that everyone is the same, given that unity and strength through diversity is key to the ecovillage movement.

2.     Cultural Dimension

Nature Community gathering in Schönsee, Germany

When considering the cultural dimension of GEN’s regenerative mission, it recommends that, to foster a culturally sustainable ecovillage, attention be directed to six areas. The six cultural principles include connection to a higher purpose in life, mindfulness and personal growth, respecting cultural traditions, actively protecting communities and nature, celebrating life and diversity through art and ritual, reconnecting to the natural world and embracing low-impact lifestyles.

Ecovillages aim to build or regenerate diverse cultures that support people to empower and care for each other, their communities and the planet. Many actively engage with practices that encourage people to build these relationships of deep connection, such as meditation, rituals to honor and celebrate the seasons and cycles of life, eating together to build strong community cohesion, amongst other examples. Acknowledging similar and divergent issues at both local and global levels reflects the systems approach to the interconnectivity of human and more-than-human communities.

Instead of being built on what Charles Eisenstein has called “the story of separation” – this is, the dominant narrative about humanity which sees humans as isolated units whose worth is considered intrinsically insufficient, leading us to compete with each other to gain the value only our alienated productivity is believed to imbue us with – they embody Eisenstein’s “story of interbeing” – a way of life that acknowledges our embeddedness in the ecosystem, relational nature and interdependence. Their foundation on this so-called “story of interbeing” turns ecovillages into territories of resistance that challenge our extractive, rampantly individualistic cultures, instead promoting a new and ancient cultural narrative based on a praxis of radical care and cooperation.

3.     Economic Dimension

Solar energy panel technology in the township of Auroville, India

Ecovillages aim to build economic practices and systems that contribute to sharing of resources, mutual support, and strong local economies and networks that serve the needs of local people and ecosystems. Most ecovillages actively work to provide sustainable alternatives to the mainstream economy and monetary system, as well as reclaim ways of thinking about wealth and progress that holistically include all aspects of life. Local currencies, sharing, social entrepreneurship, circular economy and collaborative forms of ownership are central to many ecovillages.

Ecovillages, therefore, may be considered unique places to illuminate a broader understanding of what an alternative economic model may look like. These economies can encompass features additional to markets and monetary flows where human needs are fulfilled through multi-layered relational exchanges. Non-monetary practices of gifting and reciprocity, including of labour, food, know-how, and emotional support, highlight strong social ties among community members through mutual aid and effective communication. The embedded culture of sharing as a means of achieving the financial viability of ecovillages is notably exemplified in Sieben Linden, Findhorn, Lammas and Kailash ecovillages, where the capacity of members to reduce living expenses is achieved by sharing costly assets (such as motor vehicles and washing machines) and growing food for community consumption and sale. Similarly, cost savings are achieved through bulk buying of building materials or sharing the cost of green infrastructure. The emergence of these kinds of practices is enabled through the design and creation of spaces of conviviality.

However, it is clear that ecovillage economies are typically both installed in, and to some extent dependent on, the broader modern market economy. While this can certainly create tensions within members of the communities and cause ideological conflicts, ecovillages are not meant to be isolated communities of escape for burned out, privileged, urban refugees. Instead, ecovillages are intended to be linked to social, economic, and political networks, making it important to find ways to bridge these worlds together.

4.     Ecological Dimension

Naturally built house at Findhorn Ecovillage, Scotland

Ecovillages aim to access food, shelter, water and energy in ways that respect the cycles of nature. They aim to integrate humans with the rest of nature in ways that increase biodiversity and regenerate ecosystems, as well as give people a chance to experience their interdependence with systems and cycles of life on a direct and daily basis.

At an ecovillage, organisms are considered and respected at their individual, community, ecosystems and biosphere levels. As such, the processes of growing food, creating homes, processing waste, using energy sources, managing businesses and so on, are all based on using locally-adapted strategies, materials and production systems. These seek to preserve and protect biodiversity and assess the life cycle of all products used in the ecovillage from a social and spiritual as well as ecological perspective. Human activities cannot interfere with the natural cycles of their environments, requiring innovative ecological technologies that have minimal impact on the local ecology.

As examples of these, we can turn to the Findhorn ecovillage in Scotland. Taking advantage the particularities of their local landscapes, windmills are used due to high wind energy available on the coast and lack of sufficient sunlight in the year. Over 60 ecological buildings have been erected at Findhorn to date - and there are ongoing plans for the continued construction of an ecologically respectful built environment. Over the years, this ecovillage has developed a unique construction system that is environmentally sound and energy efficient. Using natural and non-toxic materials, the community has developed a 'breathing wall' structure, which allows the fabric of a building to interact beneficially with people to moderate humidity and air quality. They have also experimented with straw bale construction, the so-called 'Earthship' system which uses recycled car tyres, and remain open to further new and innovative ecological solutions for the built environment.

As seen, ecovillages can be truly innovative spaces, whose relatively small-scale structures turn them into the perfect breeding ground for experimental models for finding integrated solutions to burning societal challenges, which tend to consider most areas of life. Their regenerative nature lays very much on how ecovillages perceive the role of human beings and their activities within the ecosystem. While the conventional worldview that has helped erect and establish the capitalist system of organization has little or no consideration to the environmental impact of its designs, the worldview adopted within the ecovillage culture sees humans, human developments, social structures and cultural concerns as an inherently constitutional part of the natural world. Instead of designing societal structures with the objective of meeting the lowest cost-efficiency requirements possible, ecovillages arrange human development in order to create optimum health. They understand how the diversity and uniqueness of each place (socially, culturally and environmentally speaking) is crucial to the process of design. That foundational premise is used to inform the process of restoring the capacity of ecosystems and bio-geological cycles to function without human domination, as well as human social systems to function without the necessity of hierarchical systems of socioeconomic and cultural organization.

Article by Helena Leonardo

Helena is a freelance educator and writer, trained in the fields of sociology and cultural studies. Her current mission is to take part in the advancement of the regenerative development paradigm through theoretical, empirical and active investigation and participation on the transformational potential of intersectional ecofeminism, community-building and the ecovillage movement.

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