Ecovillages? Intentional communities? What in the world?

Has anyone heard of these things? I was Googling self-sufficient, self-sustainability topics, etc... and came across several links about ecovillages and intentional communities. They struck me as kind of weird, yet kind of cool at the same time.

Does anyone know anything about ecovillages/intentional communities? I was surprised to discover there's some in Missouri.

On the one hand, the whole thing strikes me as being "out there", but on the other it's somewhat interesting. Is this like 21st century homesteading as a community?

Here's some links and definitions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecovillage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community


Here's Wiki's list of ecovillages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ecovillages

Here's Wiki's list of intentional communities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_intentional_communities

And here's the ecovillage in Missouri -- watch the video at the bottom of the page and tell me if it's weird, cool, or the future of homesteading:

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

Thoughts?

seen stuff like this before just never knew what it was called,i think it was on wife swap once.
i think its a great idea,what we have made "normal" is realy not so good for us.Look at all the proublems we have with the "normal" way of living.

there is an eco-village just outside of my town, located in Ithaca NY. They have a great set-up of cooperative living, sponsor tours & gatherings , and work really hard with the community to help others help themselves. They're not all wierded out and nice people to deal with at the local farmers markets, etc.
There are several smaller farms in the area that offer community planting areas as well as shared services like butchering, etc.
Well worth getting familiar with these folks, they come from all walks of live and they really try do make a differance in the areas they are in.

'back in the day' hippies tried to do this kind of thing with communes, and in Israel, there are the kibbutz. And then there are cults. I believe that there have been people that have wanted to try to lessen the impact of our lifestyle and make a conscious change to live a more productive life for a long time. It's a wonderful thing when it works, and can work. But it's not something that can just "happen" it needs a lot of research and planning to know what your options can be. More power to those who do it, I commend them.

Yes, I have heard of them, been to them and know of many intentional communities. My best friend is building one. Currently there are four adults in their household and they grow all their veggies for the year, one of the guys does all of the carpentry and construction on the property, the other guy is the fix-it man...plumbing, electrical etc., one woman is a the balancer in the household and my friend is the head of the household. She makes sure everything is provided, paid for and the household runs smoothly.

Intentional communities are great. My husband and I both are accustomed to that lifestyle for several reasons. One we are both American Indians and the tribal setting is not much different and I grew up with my family, both sets of grandparents and a great grandparent from each side in the house.

I think it totally depends on the arrangements. Some intentional communites are setup to serve the lifestyle of people who are polyamorous or in triads. Others are setup as we would like....different families being self-sufficient and working together to maintain the land and ourselves.

Personal preference is the whole base of an intentional community.

Can you say "Sustainable Commune" ?

OK seriously - I'd never get along in one of those, nor would I want to. I'm not liberal enough.

My idea of homesteading is being left alone 80% of the time, a place where I can own guns while growing food and pretty much do what I want without people or government interferring.

I'm in no way interested in anything cooporative beyond helping out the neighbors when they need it.

I really like the idea of it , but I've always had a strong dislike for dirty hippies that do nothing but lecture. Maybe if the communes were populated by more "normal" people.

I'd be in to joining one. I think we need more places where people live and work together. We are too insular these days.

Like a lot of ecological positive ideas this sounds like it can be a cool thing.

Trouble is, this sort of thing has been proven to fail in the vast majority of cases.

I like Cetawins reference to Indian tribes. Tribal cultures are kibutzes are probably
the only examples of a communal type of system working.

I have to go with Dom & Ducky on this. Neighbors helping neighbors and coops
are the only reasonable way for average people of the Western World to handle
this subject.


There is a flipside to this with "Planned Communities". These are like huge
subdivisions and do nothing to help the environment, use less energy, or
become self sustainable.

* New-agers wanting to do the Amish thing without the Bible studies, pretty much. (Geez-Louise!!! I'm cynical to the max today!!)

My brother and I have been considering doing something like this in about 5 years. He owns a house in Portland and we rent a farm in the Gorge. We have 34 acres to play on, he has 1/4 of an acre. He wants to move out here. We are both organic gardening freaks, eco nutjobs, locavores, what have you... we will probably go in on property together and build some straw bale houses or something

The only thing is we are Quakers and he is a pagan At least we are both free thinkers!