Auroville is the second community besides Findhorn that I visited, which has made it to such a commendable age. What happens in a community if it exists for such a long time and how does it affect its surroundings? If you look at Auroville today you see a flourishing, manifold area, a lush green oasis with a rich culture, solid administrative structures, great education possibilities, creative and sustainable businesses, impressive buildings and a lively community going into its … Read more
Social
Webinar: Privilege and Inequality in Ecovillages A Global Perspective Towards a New Story
May 2019 Global Ecovillage Network monthly webinar was hosted by NextGEN. Privilege and Inequality in Ecovillages: A Global Perspective Towards a New Story Ecovillages are integral to creating the beautiful world we know is possible. However, some of the same social patterns of inequality also appear within ecovillages. A global array of speakers will share how the inequality has impacted their communities, and we also invite you, the participants, to share your experience and insight. … Read more
Living the 4 dimensions of sustainability at La Cité Écologique in Québec Canadian Ecovillage shares best practices learned over several decades with the next generation
At La Cité Écologique, we believe it takes an ecovillage to raise eco-conscious children. For more than 34 years, we are consciously cultivating an environment where we can all explore our full potential, day by day. Here are some of our best practices among the 4 aspects of our community life: Social: To strengthen our social sustainability, the ecovillage is continually adapting its programme, services and projects according to the flow of life, the evolving needs of its members and new … Read more
Deep Democracy in Communities Processwork and Worldwork workshop at Findhorn and beyond
Inspired by a recent workshop on Worldwork and Process Orientated Psychology led by Ana Rhodes Castro at the Findhorn Foundation, it seemed appropriate to look further into the relevancy and applicability of these processes to communities- including those in GEN. Worldwork was developed by Arnold Mitchell in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It has since been applied to groups, organisations and international events as a way of ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard in the creation of deeply … Read more
GEN Africa Annual Regional Conference Sharing Highlights from 2017 and Announcing the 2018 Conference
It is another exciting year with many developments at local, national and international levels in GEN Africa. Members are engaging with their national governments to implement the Ecovillage Development Program in their countries. In Nigeria GEN Africa is developing and implementing a curriculum grounded in sustainable approaches to empower Masters and PhD students in the Transformation of African Studies at the University of Ibadan. Programs of similar scale are happening in Senegal, DR Congo, … Read more
Reflections on COP23 GEN Africa
What was the most inspiring aspect of COP23 for you this year? Throughout COP23, GEN spoke as a diverse and harmonious family, in a powerful voice about the necessity to involve grassroots communities in the global reflection on and action against environmental degradation. An increasing number of African government officials are reaching out to GEN to seek support and partnership to initiate or reinforce holistic regenerative development programmes in their most vulnerable regions and … Read more
Sacred Activism Newsletter Editorial
Dear friends, All around the world ecovillages and communities are standing up, as part of a global movement to protect what is sacred to them: family, friends and community, the biodiversity and beauty of nature, the future of generations to come. They stand for social justice, human rights and earth rights. When the Indigenous resistance against the Dakota Access pipeline was ended, one of the activists, White Eagle said: "Just because we’re being removed from that area doesn’t mean it’s … Read more
Memory, Fire and Hope Five Lessons from Standing Rock
The North Dakota camp may have been evicted but the movement hasn’t lost. Here are five lessons activists around the world can learn from the water protectors. "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." —Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting On February 22, 2017, water protectors at the Oceti Sakowin camp, the primary camp of Standing Rock, were evicted by the Army Corps of Engineers in a military style takeover. A peaceful resistance … Read more
Ecosystem Restoration Eco-communities as Sacred Activism
To Gaia, life is sacred, because evolving life forms is what Gaia does. To life, diversity is sacred, because diversity leads to stability in the delicately interwoven ecosystems upon which life depends. To one particular life form on Earth, the humans, perceiving sacredness depends on each individual’s personal level of consciousness. Without authentic adulthood initiations what many humans hold sacred is mere survival in the widely adopted culture of capitalistic patriarchal empire. … Read more
Standing Rock in Colombia A vision of peace after decades of war and displacement
20 years ago, more than 1000 displaced farmers and smallholders in Colombia´s North founded the peace community San José de Apartadó, a neutral village committed to non-violence and forgiveness in the armed conflict that had being going on for decades. They are still there. Sabine Lichtenfels, co-founder of Tamera/Portugal, attended the 20 anniversary of Tamera´s sister community. I am writing this from Colombia, where we – a small group from the Global Campus from Tamera/Portugal, Bolivia, … Read more
