Start Your Cooperative Business

Best of Communities Magazine

Communities magazine is the leading publication for all topics related to intentional community. From the broad-stroked overviews to the intimate details, this quarterly publication covers it all. With so much content to explore, we’ve distilled it into a single compilation!

Volume XIII – Cooperative Economics and Creating Community Where You Are

Localizing our money is a radical act. This can occur not only in our consumption, but also in our sharing, supporting, and rebuilding. The following 20 articles look at how cooperative economics are an important ingredient in cooperative living and the strength it exponentially creates.

In this book you’ll discover:

• how communities are taking their cooperation beyond the boundary of shared property
• what we’ve learned about values-based ways to make a living
• why cooperative economics should and could be a model for the dominant culture

You will recognize authors leading the intentional community movement, representing cutting-edge thinking and how-to explorations of the social, ecological, and economic aspects of sustainable living.

Volume XIII includes the following articles:

1. This issue of Cooperative Economics and Creating Community Where You Are includes Recipe for a Thriving Community by Jonathan Dawson, #119
2. Regaining Our Sense of Oneness through Localization by Helena Norberg-Hodge, #154, 15–16
3. Our Own Money: A Recipe for Local Economic Revival (including Local Currencies, Stephen Burke) by by Albert Bates, #133
4. When a Dollar Is Worth More than 100 Cents by Gwynelle Dismukes, #136
5. Social Class & Money in Community by Allen Hancock, #9
6. Our Community Revolving Loan Fund: How Walnut Street Co-op Financed Its Property by Tree Bressen, #128
7. Inventing a Rural Economy, Business by Business: How The Farm Lost its Community Subsidy and Formed a Stable Economy in Its Place by Douglas Stephenson, #116
8. Self-Reliance, Right Livelihood, and Economic “Realities”: Finding Peace in Compromise by Abeja Hummel, #158
9. Communities That Serve Others…and Love Doing It by Darin Fenger, #131
10. Free to Serve: Notes from a Needs-Based Economy by Chris Foraker, #141
11. Householding: Communal Living on a Small Scale by Elizabeth Barrette, #144
12. Balancing Act: How Much Are You Willing to Share? by Janel Healy, #152
13. The Values of Shared Ownership by Tim Miller, #159
14. The Quest for Community: A Personal Journey into the Grey Zone by Tree Bressen, #139
15. Gardens of Gratitude: A Two-Day Garden Party Blitz in L.A. by Ginny LeRossignol Blades, #144
16. Chicken à la West Birch Avenue by Hilary Giovale, #142
17. Lighten Up: A Community Energy-Reduction Experiment by Kelly Barth, #143
18. What Are the Boundaries of an Intentional Community? An Experiment in Geographically-Dispersed Community-Building by Don Schneider and Elin England, #143
19. Greening Your H’Hood David Leach, #157
20. Let’s Do Greywater First! by Laura Dvorak and J. Brush, #137

You can have ALL the BEST

Volume XIII is part of a 15-volume compilation of the Best of Communities magazine. The set includes over 200 articles about intentional communities from the 1990’s and 2000’s. Purchase the entire set and save!

Communities magazine is now published by GEN-US

For over 30 years, the Foundation for Intentional Community had the pleasure to publish Communities magazine.
Although we are no longer its publisher, Communities is still alive and thriving with GEN-US. Subscribe to the magazine today!

Economics in Cooperative Culture

Economics 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.

To purchase a print copy of this issue, contact Communities new home at GEN-US.

Articles in “Economics In Cooperative Culture”

• Publisher’s Note—Transforming Economics by Sky Blue
• Notes from the Editor—“Stewarding Our Home:” a Place for Everyone by Chris Roth
• Towards a Joyful Economics by Helen Zuman
  From Gift Circles in Brooklyn to the sharing economy at an ecovillage-based collective house, the author explores practical applications of Sacred Economics.
• The Gift Economy of Standing Rock by Murphy Robinson
  The principles of indigenous culture informed the Water Protectors’ camps: generosity, compassion, and collective survival took precedence.
• Participatory Budgeting in an Income-Sharing Community by Adder Oaks
  How does one share income and expenses among a hundred people? Twin Oaks discovers how to supplant apathy with widespread engagement.
• Servant Leadership in Cooperative Business: Stirring It Up at East Wind Nut Butters by Sumner Nichols
  An egalitarian community’s General Manager reflects on embodying collective values and ecological sanity in a three-million-dollar-a-year business.
• Community as Economic Engine by Laird Schaub
  A long-time communard suggests ways non-income-sharing communities can better support their members’ economic well-being.
• Economy, Community, and Place by Lindsay Hagamen
  Economy and stewarding our home were once synonymous, and can be again.
• A New Economy: Connections of Affection by Helen Iles
  The Age of Transition is no longer ahead of us; it has already begun.
• Towards a Relationship Economy at Port Townsend EcoVillage by Viki Sonntag
  From the Honeybee Democracy Proposal to incorporating low-cost housing options, a cohousing group finds ways to welcome and empower more members.
• Home Ownership Is Dead! Long Live the Permanent Real Estate Cooperative! by Janelle Orsi
  Removing houses from the speculative market promises a renewed culture of inclusiveness, mutual aid, self-help, grassroots organizing, and economic revitalization.
• Mobile Home Parks: A Fast and Inexpensive Path to Cohousing by William Noel
  Mobile home and RV parks present an unequaled opportunity to accelerate the transition to more widespread community living.
• Business Co-ops as a Prelude to Intentional Community by Werner Kontara
  Developing a successful business before starting a residential community around it offers distinct advantages.
• Community Is the Best Medicine: A guide to cooperative living on a disability income by Lily Silver
  Those living with disabilities have many options for finding community; here are suggestions on where and how to look.
• Exemplars: An Introduction by Paul Freundlich
  A library explores initiatives consistent with the values of sustainability, cooperation, and community, integrating the economic advantages of “scaling up” and “scaling down.”
• Living Out a Gift Economy in Community with Others by Tina Dunn (with input from others in the Jesus Christian community)
  Putting love into practice can be done even when you have nothing materially.
• Economics and Cooperation in Community: The Ultimate Contest by Dan Schultz
  A once fiercely competitive athlete becomes a cheerleader for Team Cooperation.
• Let All Money in the World Become Everyone’s Money: Towards a Society Where All People Can Share Money by Yoshifumi Nakano (called Nakanon)
  A spiritually affluent economy requires a revolution in cooperation and sharing.
• Mixing Sociability and Utility: A Recipe for Community Connection by Annie Raser-Rowland
• An Invitation to Single Men: Consider Cohousing by Carolyn Schlam
• Sunflower Cohousing en France by Martin Prosser
• How to Create New Nature Reserves by Dr. Adrian Cooper
• Creating Cooperative Culture—Together Resilient: Why This Book? Thoughts on Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption by Sky Blue