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Category Archives: News Articles

The Community Land Trust That Arose Out of the Civil Rights Movement

The Community Land Trust That Arose Out of the Civil Rights Movement

So many of the community structures that we write about here at FIC – such as community land trusts – have a long, but often overlooked, history. That’s why it’s important for writers, filmmakers, and historians to document stories of intentional communities over time. A new documentary, Arc of Justice, does just that. Made byMore…

This 1800s Commune Tried Free Love and Income-Sharing Long Before It Was A Thing

This 1800s Commune Tried Free Love and Income-Sharing Long Before It Was A Thing

Many of the intentional communities that we hear about are recent ones: the back-to-the-land communes of the 1970s, the student co-ops and cohousing spaces being formed today. That’s why it’s especially fascinating to get a glimpse into a commune from a different era – as I did recently in a book called “Oneida: From FreeMore…

Switzerland to Vote on Basic Income Referendum June 5

Switzerland to Vote on Basic Income Referendum June 5

This Sunday, June 5, Switzerland will be the first country to vote on whether or not its citizens should receive a universal basic income (UBI) of $2,600 per month. The proposal would guarantee a payment to every citizen (and $650 per child), without any pre-conditions or work requirements. Liberal advocates argue that a UBI willMore…

Millennials Are Embracing Cohousing – Of A  Different Kind

Millennials Are Embracing Cohousing – Of A Different Kind

It may have been only a matter of time before the millennial generation turned its attention to cohousing. As car and home ownership among young people has declined, and as the nuclear family is no longer the go-to living arrangement, it makes sense that college grads would look for ways share resources and living spacesMore…

The Write A House Program Builds Artistic Community in Detroit

The Write A House Program Builds Artistic Community in Detroit

Launched in 2012, the Write a House program in Detroit has been creating a writers’ residency like no other. After buying up vacant homes, the organization renovates them – with the help of youths in vocational training – and invites a writer to move in. After two years of residency, the writer is given theMore…

Who Defines a Family?

Who Defines a Family?

Who Defines a Family? “Love makes us a Family.” The Scarborough Street mansion is home to 8 adults who live together by choice in a small community. Their local zoning laws however forbid so many unrelated adults living together, causing the city of Hartford to tell them they must move out. “This issue of theMore…

How to Thrive on 10%

How to Thrive on 10%

How to Thrive on 10% It is often taken for granted that the United States consumes and wastes 5 times more than the rest of the planet. At the same time it is well known and highly advised that dramatic reductions in carbon pollution is needed to address climate change. We also know that havingMore…

Gender Issues – Communities Magazine #162 Spring  Issue

Gender Issues – Communities Magazine #162 Spring Issue

Communities Magazine — Spring 2014 Gender Issues Latest Issue in Print, Free Articles Published Online Gender Issues—Issue #162 Our new Communities issue on Gender Issues was mailed to subscribers in early March. You can subscribe now or order a sample and we’ll ship you a copy today! Our Spring 2014 issue focuses on Gender Issues.More…

The Farm Communities Conference 2014 — Register Now!

  The 6th Annual Farm Conference On Community & Sustainability Register Now! Memorial Day Weekend, May 23–25, 2014  Summertown TN The Building Blocks of Community An FIC Co-Sponsored Event  The Building Blocks Of Community Government Earning a Living: Small Business, Developing Professions Healthy Lifestyle  and Health Care: Growing Food and Sustainable Diet, Children and Elder CareMore…

Communities Conference – Help Us Rebuild Our Kitchen!

Twin Oaks Communities Conference Help Us Rebuild Our Kitchen! Labor Day Weekend Conference, Louisa VA An FIC Co-Sponsored Event Just two weeks to support the Communities Conference kitchen! We’re less than two weeks away from our deadline to raise funds for the new kitchen at the Twin Oaks Communities Conference! Our indiegogo campaign needs toMore…

D.C.’s ‘intentional communities’ put strangers in a house joined by core values

“Laird Schaub, executive secretary of the Fellowship for Intentional Community, said there’s been a boomlet in intentional living since about 2005. […] People “say there has been more alienation and fragmentation, more divisiveness and tension, less sense of neighborliness than when they grew up,” he said. “The reason [the homes] are important is because inMore…

Piece in Atlantic about Transition Towns

An article in the Atlantic by Kentaro Toyama describes Transition Towns as “the latest in a history of intentional communities that have experimented to find more enlightened alternatives to modern economically driven urban life.” The movement’s basic premises are that the consequences of peak oil and climate change are imminent; that governments and entrenched powersMore…

Eco-commune movement in Russia

Russia: Beyond the Headlines, an international newspaper focused on Russian news, politics and culture, recently posted an article on the growth of homesteading communities, referred to as “eco-communes” in rural Russia. Thousands of Russian professionals have lost hope for a better life in cities. They have taken to the forests to create their own utopiasMore…

Huffington Post profiles a Christian community with a social agenda

This article discusses the impact that a group of young Christians are hoping to produce by building community in a violent neighborhood in Gresham, Oregon. This work is tied to the tradition of new monasticism, emphasizing communal living, hospitality, contemplation and engagement with the poor. In the two years since David Knepprath and Josh GuisingerMore…

New York Times showcases emerging collectives in Brooklyn

An article in the Fashion & Style section of the Times this week credits urban agriculture, social media and a flourishing arts community as bolstering the trend toward sharing, bartering and living communally in Brooklyn. “The groundswell of social technology today is creating unprecedented opportunities to share and collaborate,” said Rachel Bosman, an author ofMore…

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage’s Cob House in Yes!

Yes! magazine has an article and slideshow on one of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage‘s cob houses. The article is on the cover of the upcoming issue of Yes! on Resilency. The slideshow includes an excerpt from Brian (Ziggy) Liloia’s Cob House blog: I live at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, an intentional community in Northeast Missouri devoted toMore…

Egalitarian Community in Ethiopia

A recent article from newsdesk.org looks at the progressive Awra Amba community in Ethiopia. Sixty-three-year-old Zumra Nuru, a longtime promoter of gender equality and religious freedom, founded the society in the 1980s. As a child, Nuru was skeptical of the inequality he observed on a daily basis. … Though Awra Amba could claim only 19More…

The Independent looks at ‘Modern Communes’

A recent article in Britain’s Independent describes the successes of Lammas Eco-village, Brithdir Mawr and Steward Wood communities in the UK. If reassurance were needed that life in a commune really is a plausible alternative to more conventional ways of existence, remember that for years several of these places have been proving their viability acrossMore…

Profile of Mackenzie Heights Collective in Vancouver

British Columbia’s independent online magazine, The Tyee, posted a lengthy article a couple months ago on the advantages of collective living, profiling the Mackenzie Heights Collective. Currently housing five adults (ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-40s) and a toddler, the Collective is a model of shared-resources commitment. “We’ve got 2,700 square feet in theMore…

Cooking Co-ops in the NY Times

The New York Times did a nice feature on cooking co-ops. A cooking co-op, or dinner swap, is simply an agreement by two or more individuals or households to provide prepared meals for each other, according to a schedule. The goal is to reduce the time spent in the kitchen while increasing the quality andMore…

Harvard Magazine Features Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm

Harvard Magazine has a nice feature on Nubanusit Farm and Neighborhood, a cohousing community in New Hampshire. They tore up the parking lot and put up a communal paradise. Or so Joni Mitchell could sing about what’s happened on 113 acres of idyllic farmland just outside Peterborough, New Hampshire. In 2004, two couples bought theMore…

BBC News Looks at Co-housing

In this video, the BBC‘s David Sillito checks out the co-housing movement, talking to members of a community in Dorset, England. Watch the video here.

Twin Oaks on CNN!

In this video produced by CNN, members of the Twin Oaks community in Louisa VA describe their goals and daily experiences, and demonstrate their shared commitment to sustainability. Check out the video here: Twin Oaks on CNN

Feature Article on Cohousing in the Boston Globe

This week an article in the Boston Globe examines the growing momentum of the cohousing movement in Massachusetts, and discusses the importance of community and environmental consciousness to Boston residents. Carbon footprints and tight household budgets weigh on a lot of city dwellers’ minds, its champions point out. Security, safety, and building a sense ofMore…

London Times reports that “communes are back in fashion”

“We’re all in this together” is the headline of a recent article in the Real Estate section of the TimesOnline that looks favorably on the rise in sustainable communities in the UK. What do you share with your neighbours? A cup of sugar? A dividing wall? Despair over the way that your recycling boxes alwaysMore…

Transition towns in the USA!

Thanks for responses to the recent post about Transition Towns in Australia. This is also a thriving movement in the United States, and we wanted to share this link for those further interested: http://www.transitionus.org/welcome-transition-us

Transition Towns in Australia

Kim Jones, of the Sydney Morning Herald, advocates Transition Towns as a solution to suburban expansion and dwindling resources in Australia in a recent article. The recent trend of Transition Towns, as a response to climate change and the energy crisis, highlights the importance of recognising the rural context when considering the issues of urbanMore…

British Government funds ecovillage in Wales

Green Building Press reports that the British Government is donating 350,000 pounds (more than $500,000 US dollars) to the Lammas ecovillage, based in Pembrokeshire, Wales, to build an educational community center that will introduce strategies for low-impact development to the public. The Lammas ecovillage was established due to a recent local planning initiative permitting small,More…

An article in South Africa’s Times Live looks at self-sustaining communities

A recent article in Times Live explores “the green life” at Khula Dhamma eco-village in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. In a place where being able to use an iPod depends on the weather; your supper grows in the vegetable patch outside your window, and you’re forced to know where your number oneMore…

Brooklyn Co-housing in the New York Post

New York Magazine profiled Brooklyn Co-housing, the first co-housing community in New York City, in an in-depth article recently. This is a level of group interaction that the co-housers haven’t been able to find anywhere else in the city, and that they are betting other New Yorkers would enjoy, too. “There’s this thing called community”More…

We happily link to the following organizations, all of whom share our strong commitment to promoting community and a more cooperative world:
Cohousing The Federation of Egalitarian Communities - Communes Coop Community Cooperative Sustainable Intentional North American Students of Cooperation Global Ecovillage Network
Special thanks to the sponsors of our Art of Community Events.