An informal survey raises several compelling questions: Can communitarians
learn to focus on larger-scale politics as much as on internal politics? Should they? What’s proper political etiquette in community? And have you ever met a communitarian who is not left of center?
O.U.R. Ecovillage has audaciously invited inspectors, architects, and regulatory officials to participate in their green building programs for the past eight years. In the process, they have fostered cooperative social connections–and received full approval for an eco-housing cluster.
The communities movement and the natural building movement share the goal of forming meaningful relationships–with other people and with one’s own home. In fact, natural building practically demands community.
Tree Bressen traces her own path of exploration from commune to collective household, discovering that community isn’t always drawn in black and white.
There wasn’t much chance that her lifelong dream of owning a bookstore would come true in her rural Missouri community. So Alline Anderson set off down the exciting and terrifying path of launching the Milkweed Mercantile–creating jobs, providing a market for community products, and offering a warm place for visitors to put up their feet.
Mollie Curry hoists a chainsaw and finds herself entangled in a perplexing webs of sticky questions. Here she attempts to untangle the threads, both within herself and within her community.