All Blog Posts
Public Banks and Credit Unions: What’s the Difference?
Posted on July 24, 2017 byAs we’ve been thinking about intentional communities as alternative loci for power, the question of money and other ways for storing and using it naturally also came up. This article by Marc Armstrong first appeared on Cowboys on the Common’s blog here. Anything that takes control from Wall Street banks is viewed by many as… Read More
New membership benefits with the Foundation for Intentional Community
Posted on July 22, 2017 byJoin the FIC! Sky Blue, FIC Executive Director Why would I become a member of the FIC? There have always been benefits to FIC membership, and now we’re expanding those benefits. But that’s not the only reason to be a member. Being a member is a way to support the programs and services we provide to… Read More
Community Is the Best Medicine: A guide to cooperative living on a disability income
Posted on July 21, 2017 byThose living with disabilities have many options for finding community; here are suggestions on where and how to look.
Servant Leadership in Cooperative Business: Stirring It Up at East Wind Nut Butters
Posted on July 11, 2017 byAn egalitarian community’s General Manager reflects on embodying collective values and ecological sanity in a three-million-dollar-a-year business.
Fifty Years of Commune Life
Posted on July 6, 2017 by1 Comment
This article first appeared on Commune Life. For a more theoretical take on the Twin Oaks project, we recommend reading Allen Butcher’s excellent article here. When Twin Oaks was founded (in 1967), they thought a revolution was possible in their lifetime and one of the purposes of Twin Oaks was to show how people could… Read More
Mobile Home Parks: A Fast and Inexpensive Path to Cohousing
Posted on June 30, 2017 by2 Comments
Mobile home and RV parks present an unequaled opportunity to accelerate the transition to more widespread community living.
How do we resolve group conflict?
Posted on June 24, 2017 byCommunity Bookstore Special Best of Communities The Cream of Our Crop Agreements, Conflicts, and Communication by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore Manager Best of Communities Volume VI Agreements, Conflicts, and Communication A special selection of articles from Communities: Life in Cooperative Culture magazine $10 Digital, $15 Print The Foundation for Intentional Community is pleased to offer you the… Read More
Community as Economic Engine
Posted on June 21, 2017 by1 Comment
A long-time communard suggests ways non-income-sharing communities can better support their members’ economic well-being.
How We Inspire: Top 100 Documentaries
Posted on June 17, 2017 byTop 100 Documentaries To Change The World by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore Manager Recently we came across a link to the “Top 100 Documentaries We Can Use to Change the World” from Films for Action. Of course, we FIC-ers are suckers for such click-bait and in any case are eager to explore such lists. As the… Read More
Climate Change Needs Community-Based Action
Posted on June 15, 2017 byby Ma’ikwe Ludwig This post originally appeared on Cowboys on the Commons. To read Ma’ikwe’s forthcoming book on local environmental activism, Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption, please click here. For a follow-up interview about this article, please go here. “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.… Read More
Participatory Budgeting in an Income-Sharing Community
Posted on June 11, 2017 by1 Comment
How does one share income and expenses among a hundred people? Twin Oaks discovers how to supplant apathy with widespread engagement.
The Gift Economy of Standing Rock
Posted on June 1, 2017 by1 Comment
The principles of indigenous culture informed the Water Protectors’ camps: generosity, compassion, and collective survival took precedence.
Towards a Joyful Economics
Posted on May 28, 2017 byFrom Gift Circles in Brooklyn to the sharing economy at an ecovillage-based collective house, the author explores practical applications of Sacred Economics.
Digging Deeper
Posted on May 27, 2017 byA Deeper Look Communities Movement Research By Ma’ikwe Ludwig, FIC Development Director (and Junior Researcher) I’ve been looking at data again. I’ve done this on again off again for the past few years for the various nonprofits I work with, but this data is way more fun than, say, budget numbers. This data is the… Read More
Re-Membering the Web of Life: The Biological Imperative for Sovereignty, Interdependence, and a Consent Economy
Posted on May 27, 2017 by“To last, love must enflesh itself in the materiality of the world—produce food, shelter, warmth or shade, surround itself with careful acts and well-made things.” —Wendell Berry With our first breath, we sign an unwritten contract. With this signing, we accept certain preconditions for being alive, in this body, here and now, on this Earth.… Read More
Economics in Cooperative Culture, #175 Contents
Posted on May 26, 2017 byEconomics in cooperative culture—the focus of our Summer issue—is expressed in myriad forms
From cohousing developments to gift-economy activist camps, from spiritual communities to mobile home parks, from income-sharing communities to intentional neighborhoods, people across a wide range of economic circumstances and approaches are discovering the benefits of cooperative economics. Their stories suggest new ways of “stewarding our home” and transitioning into a more inclusive and sustainable future.
Because I’m happy…
Posted on May 16, 2017 by4 Comments
Because I’m Happy! Ma’ikwe Ludwig, Acting Development Director News Flash! Researchers confirm that community is a happier, more meaningful way to live! Well, that’s not actually news to those of us who live in community, but it is news―important news―for the rest of the world, which is very much in need of all of the… Read More
Is Consensus the Best Practice?
Posted on May 9, 2017 byCommunity Bookstore Special Best of Communities The Cream of Our Crop Consensus by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore Manager Best of Communities Volume V Consensus A special selection of articles from Communities: Life in Cooperative Culture $15 in print; $10 digital The Foundation for Intentional Community is pleased to offer you the cream of our crop―the very… Read More
Variations on a Theme: Low-Carbon Communities of All Sorts
Posted on May 1, 2017 by2 Comments
Three innovative non-residential groups use community as a tool to address climate change.
Two Northwest Cities Are Building Tiny Houses For The Homeless in Residential Backyards
Posted on April 27, 2017 by2 Comments
A new pilot program in Portland, OR, is exploring an unconventional way to reduce homelessness in the city. Relying on $350,000 in funding, the county will pay for the cost of building a tiny house in a homeowner’s backyard – under the condition that a homeless family can live there for five years. The program, called A Place… Read More
People over profit, communities over corporations!
Posted on April 25, 2017 byPeople Over Profit, Communities Over Corporations! Soon to be posted on the FIC Blog Sky Blue A long-time, low-rent community building in East Oakland could become a giant playground for big tech–or stay an affordable, people-of-color-led social justice center, with your help! This multi-use space includes: The Bikery, part of Cycles of Change, a community… Read More
Affordable, Developer-Driven Ecovillages: Meeting an Unmet Need
Posted on April 21, 2017 by1 Comment
A replicable ecovillage model is our best hope for achieving essential, global-scale changes.
The Journal of Political Ecology Looks At Intentional Communities From An Academic Perspective
Posted on April 20, 2017 byFor many of us, intentional communities serve as experiential laboratories, examples of ways that people can come together to challenge the dominant systems that we’ve grown up with or have learned to put up with. It’s been great to see a rise in mainstream awareness of intentional communities, with more news and media outlets taking cohousing and… Read More
National Cohousing Conference
Posted on April 19, 2017 byI’m really excited for the National Cohousing Conference, May 19 – 21, in Nashville, TN. Cohousing as a model is growing and evolving at a rapid pace, and this is great news for intentional communities and cooperative ventures everywhere. Cohousing communities have long been on the forefront of dealing with financial institutions, zoning officials, and… Read More
Think Resilience!
Posted on April 18, 2017 byThink Resilience! Post Carbon Institute Self-Guided Course Community Bookstore Book Looking for a deep dive into what resilience means for your life and the world around you? The Post Carbon Institute has produced a self-guided course titled Think Resilience: Preparing Communities for the Rest of the 21st Century, which centers around a video series by Richard… Read More
Is An Income-Sharing Community Right for You?
Posted on April 13, 2017 byWhen I first heard about the concept of income-sharing communities, I was pretty skeptical. It had been hard enough for me stabilize my own finances after graduating from college during the recession. I wasn’t sure I’d be up for sharing finances with a spouse – never mind an entire community. But the more that I learned about… Read More
Soil, Communities, and Climate Change: An Interview with Nikki Silvestri
Posted on April 11, 2017 byAs a climate solutions advocate explains, carbon is not a bad thing; it’s often just in the wrong places right now.
This Novel Explores A Tuscon Community’s Response To Climate Change
Posted on April 10, 2017 byA new novel by Susan Feathers, called Threshold, explores one community’s response to climate change. Inspired by her experiences with the Building Resilient Neighborhoods program in Tuscon, Arizona, Threshold combines interlocking plot-lines with the latest scientific research to bring the concept of community resiliency to life. You can purchase the book online or read an… Read More
This 21-Day Racial Equity Online Program Tackles Social Justice in the Food System
Posted on April 3, 2017 byFood Solutions New England is offering an online 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge, in partnership with the Interaction Institute for Social Change. Participants will receive an e-mail prompt each day, with a challenge to “learn, read, talk, or take action.” According to its website: “We believe that we cannot talk about and work for sustainability,… Read More
Inside Cohousing – Open House Day and the National Conference
Posted on April 1, 2017 byInside Cohousing Open House Day & The National Conference The second annual National Cohousing Open House Day will be held Saturday, April 29th. Organized by the Cohousing Association of the US, all kinds of communities are welcome to list events. Click here for a list of participating communities. Click here pictures and posts from the 2016… Read More
