When the city of Eugene broke up the Occupy camp in December of 2011, they promised to give the homeless another piece of land. Dan Bryant, a minister who wears a leather jacket and drives a motorcycle; Jean Stacey, a fiery lesbian advocate for the homeless; and Andy Heben, a young urban designer who wrote his thesis on homeless camps that he visited around the country, went around touting the idea of Opportunity Village. Alex Daniell found out that "If you give a homeless person a home then … Read more
intentional communities
Amalurra Communities based on Femini Basque Country: Amalurra Communities in Basque Country and Spain Based on Feminine Principles
After returning from a trip to the American continent, Irene Goikolea reconnected with the need to awaken to the sacred feminine aspect as an inherent part of the legacy of her people of the Basque country. She was inspired to found the Amalurra communities - which is Basque for Mother Earth - more than 20 years ago. Today, Amalurra has three communities with 150 men and women. In the first part of this article, Irene shares her experience with the female principles; the second part is an … Read more
How are you Empowering the Women in your Community?
Together with sociologist and feminist Nina Kovoets, we sent out a little questionnaire to the general GEN Europe list to get some data about the situation of women in the ecovillages - at least in Europe. We received 18 replies - which is probably not very representative but gives a taste of what people in the movements feel about women's empowerment and gender roles. Thank you to all who took the time to reply. The majority of the communities and projects that answered have slightly more … Read more
Place & Space Australia's National Housing Conference
Increasingly in what could be termed community engagement vernacular we’re hearing the words well being, walkability and liveability used. From my perspective this is a very positive trend because it acknowledges the effects the built environment can have on people. My particular focus in this talk is place making and medium density city living. I thought in talking about place that I should first talk about non-place. Marc Auge a French anthropologist coined the term non-place to refer to … Read more
Permaculture Aid Yolanda Permaculture aid Yolanda for disaster support in the philippines
How many times have we seen images of refugee camps worldwide with people being forced by wars, or other disasters, to live together under harsh and unbearable circumstances? Sometimes this situation can last over years, and even decades. An increasing number of people in the GEN movement feel that ecovillage processes and practices can contribute a great deal in these situations. A prime example being in communities that are forced to come together out of traumatic or disaster situations often … Read more
Community Tools Transparency, equivalence, and effectiveness
Diana Leafe Christian explains how what the benefits of using Sociocracy in communities are, especially when compared with using consensus. This article appeared in Communities magazine’s Fall 2013 issue, Sept, 2013; and is serialized in blogs and other Internet sources, including Ecovillages newsletter www.EcovillageNews.org At first the question stumped me. I was giving an informal presentation on Sociocracy one morning in a grass-roof-covered building at Findhorn in Scotland. … Read more
Villagelab A service tool to facilitate the flow of wealth to and from regenerative communities
Gaia Villages Foundation & the Ecovillage Innovation Lab has simplified its name to VillageLab. Though initially based in North America and Mexico, VillageLab hopes to spread its services to the entire GEN network and other networks of sustainable and regenerative communities. Presently VillageLab is looking for beta test projects to include on its crowdfunding site. The group will be publishing their project selection criteria soon - to get a copy please contact them directly. Jeff … Read more
Community Tools: Transparency, Equivalence, and Effectiveness
Diana Leafe Christian explains how what the benefits of using Sociocracy in communities are, especially when compared with using consensus. This article appeared in Communities magazine’s Fall 2013 issue, Sept, 2013; and is serialized in blogs and other Internet sources, including Ecovillages newsletter www.EcovillageNews.org At first the question stumped me. I was giving an informal presentation on Sociocracy one morning in a grass-roof-covered building at Findhorn in Scotland. Sociocracy … Read more
VillageLab – a service tool to facilitate the flow of wealth to and from regenerative communities
Gaia Villages Foundation & the Ecovillage Innovation Lab has simplified its name to VillageLab. Though initially based in North America and Mexico, VillageLab hopes to spread its services to the entire GEN network and other networks of sustainable and regenerative communities. Presently VillageLab is looking for beta test projects to include on its crowdfunding site. The group will be publishing their project selection criteria soon - to get a copy please contact them directly. Jeff Clearwater … Read more
Disaster Support in the Philippines Permaculture Aid Yolanda for Disaster Support in the Philippines
How many times have we seen images of refugee camps worldwide with people being forced by wars, or other disasters, to live together under harsh and unbearable circumstances? Sometimes this situation can last over years, and even decades. An increasing number of people in the GEN movement feel that ecovillage processes and practices can contribute a great deal in these situations. A prime example being in communities that are forced to come together out of traumatic or disaster situations often … Read more
