Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities - Softcover

Diana Leafe Christian, Patch Adams (Foreword)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865714711 ISBN 13: 9780865714717

Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2003

Synopsis

Everything you need to know to create an intentional community from scratch

An intentional community is a group of people who have chosen to live or work together in pursuit of a common ideal or vision. An ecovillage is a village-scale intentional community that intends to create, ecological, social, economic, and spiritual sustainability over several generations.

The 90s saw a revitalized surge of interest in intentional communities and ecovillages in North America: the number of intentional communities listed in the Communities Directory increased 60 percent between 1990 and 1995. But only 10 percent of the actual number of forming-community groups actually succeeded. Ninety percent failed, often in conflict and heartbreak. After visiting and interviewing founders of dozens of successful and failed communities, along with her own forming-community experiences, the author concluded that "the successful 10 percent" had all done the same five or six things right, and "the unsuccessful 90 percent" had made the same handful of mistakes. Recognizing that a wealth of wisdom were contained in these experiences, she set out to distill and capture them in one place.

Creating a Life Together is the only resource available that provides step-by-step, practical "how-to" information on how to launch and sustain a successful ecovillage or intentional community. Through anecdotes, stories, and cautionary tales about real communities, and by profiling seven successful communities in depth, the book examines "the successful 10 percent" and why 90 percent fail; the role of community founders; getting a group off to a good start; vision and vision documents; decision-making and governance; agreements; legal options; finding, financing, and developing land; structuring a community economy; selecting new members; and communication, process, and dealing well with conflict. Sample vision documents, community agreements, and visioning exercises are included, along with abundant resources for learning more.

About this title

Review:

"Before aspiring community builders hold their first meeting, confront their first realtor, or drive their first nail, they must buy this essential book: it will improve their chances for success immensely, and will certainly save them money, time, and heartbreak. In her friendly but firm (and occasionally funny) way, Diana Christian proffers an astonishing wealth of practical information and sensible, field-tested advice."
―ERNEST CALLENBACH, AUTHOR, ECOTOPIA AND ECOTOPIA EMERGING

"Wow! The newest, most comprehensive bible for builders of intentional communities. Covers every aspect with vital information and dozens of examples of how successful communities faced the challenges and created their shared lives out of their visions. The cautionary tales of sadder experiences and how communities fail, will help in avoiding the pitfalls. Not since I wrote the Foreword to Ingrid Komar's Living the Dream (1983), which documented the Twin Oaks community, have I seen a more useful and inspiring book on this topic."
―HAZEL HENDERSON, AUTHOR CREATING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES AND POLITICS OF THE SOLAR AGE .

"A really valuable resource for anyone thinking about intentional community. I wish I had it years ago."
―STARHAWK, AUTHOR OF WEBS OF POWER , THE SPIRAL DANCE , AND THE FIFTH SACRED THING , AND LONG-TIME COMMUNITY MEMBER.

"Every potential ecovillager should read it. This book will be an essential guide and manual for the many Permaculture graduates who live in communities or design for them."
―BILL MOLLISON, COFOUNDER OF THE PERMACULTURE MOVEMENT, AND AUTHOR, PERMACULTURE: A DESIGNER'S MANUAL

"Creating a new culture of living peacefully with each other and the planet is our number one need―and this is the right book at the right time. Creating a Life Together will help community founders avoid fatal mistakes. I can't wait to tell people about it."
―HILDUR JACKSON, COFOUNDER, GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK (GEN); CO-EDITOR, ECOVILLAGE LIVING: RESTORING THE EARTH AND HER PEOPLE

" Creating a Life Together is a comprehensive, engaging, practical, well-organized, and thoroughly digestible labor of love. Hopefully scores of wannabe community founders and seekers will discover it before they launch their quest for community, and avoid the senseless and sometimes painful lessons that come from trying to reinvent the wheel. This book is a gift to humanity―helping to move forward the elusive quest for community, fueling a quantum leap towards a fulfilling, just, and sustainable future."
―GEOPH KOZENY, PRODUCER/EDITOR OF VIDEO DOCUMENTARY,"VISIONS OF UTOPIA: EXPERIMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE CULTURE"

"While anyone can build a village, a subdivision, or a housing development, the challenge is filling it with people who can get along, who can reach agreements, and who can achieve far more together than they ever could alone. If your aspiring ecovillage or intentional community gets even this far ― and this awesome book will show you how ― then maybe you have a realistic chance of living sustainably and, by example, of changing the world.My appreciation grows daily for this thorough, practical, and engaging guide."
―ALBERT BATES, DIRECTOR, ECOVILLAGE TRAINING CENTER, AND INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY, ECOVILLAGE NETWORK OF THE AMERICAS.

"Developing a successful community requires a special blend of vision and practicality woven together with wisdom. Consider this book a marvelous mirror. If the abundant, experience-based, practicality in this book delights you then you probably have the wisdom to realize your vision."
―ROBERT GILMAN, FOUNDING EDITOR OF IN CONTEXT, A QUARTERLY OF HUMANE SUSTAINABLE CULTURE, AND AUTHOR OF ECOVILLAGES AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

"So many well intended communities fail because they don't even know the questions to ask, let alone where to find answers. This book offers a wealth of detailed information that will help guide communities to finding what is right for their specific situation, and greatly increase their odds of their success."
―KATHRYN MCCAMANT, COHOUSING RESIDENT, ARCHITECT, AND PROJECT MANAGER, AND AUTHOR OF COHOUSING

Book Description:

Everything you need to know to create an intentional community from scratch

About this edition

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0865714711
• ISBN 13: 9780865714717
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272