ICSA Conference 2016 in Tamera Ecovillage (Portugal)
July 1st-3rd, 2016
From July 1st-3rd, 2016, the International Communal Studies Association (ICSA) Conference will take place in the peace research community center in the Tamera Healing Biotope Ecovillage in southern Portugal. This year’s theme is “Community approaches towards inner and outer peace.”
ICSA was formed in 1985 during an international conference held at Yad Tabenkin, the Research and Documentation Centre of the Kibbutz Movement, in Israel. ICSA‘s international conferences of enable scholars and members of kibbutzim and communal living initiatives to meet and exchange research and experiences. The participation of scholars at the conferences has promoted many reciprocal visits of scholars to kibbutzim and communes around the world thus enhancing first-hand knowledge.
ICSA is a forum for exchanging scholarship, information, ideas, and experiences on intentional community. It is an apolitical organization. As an international organization, ICSA maintains contact with parallel associations like the Communal Studies Association in the USA. It also instigated the establishment of the European Utopian Studies Association as the result of the participation of some British scholars at the 2nd ICSA conference in Scotland.
The ICSA central office is located at the Yad Tabenkin Institute in Israel. The Institute’s Archives and Library contain extensive collections on intentional communities from around the world, which are available to the general public upon request. An electronic bulletin, which supplies subscribers with interdisciplinary material is distributed biannually in addition to relevant material received from various organizations and publications throughout the world. ICSA also promotes the publication of the conferences’ proceedings and maintains a list of scholars active in kibbutz and communal research.
From June 28th-30th, 2016, there were introductory days in Tamera. On the 4th of July we will offer a post-conference tour to different projects in the area.
More information and call for papers: http://icsa.tamera.org
Learn more about Tamera’s work in the Middle East: http://icsa.tamera.org/about-us/tameras-work-in-the-middle-east
(Title image sourced from conference website.)
