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Intentional
Communities
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.
Intentional communities include cohousing, residential land trusts,
ecovillages, communes, kibbutzim, ashrams, and housing cooperatives.
It is important to note that in the context of intentional communities
the above terms have different meanings compared to the legal forms of
real estate ownership that may have the same name. For example the
members of a cohousing intentional community may own their homes by
owning shares in a housing cooperative.
The purposes of intentional communities vary. They may include sharing
resources, creating family-oriented neighborhoods and living
ecologically sustainable lifestyles. Some communities are secular;
others have a spiritual basis. Commonly there is a focus on egalitarian
values. Other themes are voluntary simplicity, interpersonal growth and
self-reliance. Some communities provide services to disadvantaged
populations, for example, war refugees, the homeless, or people with
developmental disabilities. Some communities operate learning or health
centers.
In the United States, at least one intentional community, on the west
coast, operates through members who don't live together but share each
other's services.
Christian intentional communities are usually composed of those wanting
to emulate the practices of the earliest believers. Using "The Acts of
the Apostles" in the Bible (and, often, the "Sermon on the Mount") as a
model, members of these communities strive for a practical outworking
of their individual faith in a corporate context. (See links below.)
According to the Communities Directory (1995), published by the
Fellowship for Intentional Community, 54% of the communities listed are
rural, 28% are urban, 10% have both rural and urban sites, and 8% don't
specify.
The most common form of governance in intentional communities is
democratic (64%), with decisions made by some form of consensus
decision-making or voting. Of the remainder, 9% have a hierarchical or
authoritarian structure, 11% are a combination of democratic and
hierarchical structure, and 16% don't specify. Many communities which
were initially led by an individual or small group have changed in
recent years to a more democratic form of governance.
More
information can be found at Eco-Villages
and CoHousing.
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