Intentional community

"Collective settlement", "Utopian society", and "Utopian experiment" redirect here. For the legal term, see Settlement (litigation). For the film, see The Utopian Society. For other uses of "Utopian experiment", see Utopian experiment (disambiguation).
For other uses of "Commune" and "Communal", see Commune (disambiguation) and Communal (disambiguation).
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An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to foster a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork.[1][2][3] Members typically unite around shared values, beliefs, or a common vision, which may be political, religious, spiritual, or simply focused on the practical benefits of cooperation and mutual support. While some groups emphasise shared ideologies, others are centred on enhancing social connections, sharing resources, and creating meaningful relationships.

Although intentional communities are sometimes described as alternative lifestyles[4] or social experiments,[1][5] some see them as a natural response to the isolation and fragmentation of modern housing, offering a return to the social bonds and collaborative spirit found in traditional village life.[6]

The multitude of intentional communities includes collective households, cohousing communities, coliving, ecovillages, monasteries, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, Hutterites, ashrams, and housing cooperatives.

Members of the Anabaptist Christian Bruderhof Communities live, eat, work and worship communally.
Young musicians living in a shared community in Amsterdam
Traditional ashram
Ecovillage "Velyka Rodyna" in Troshcha (Ukrainian: Троща).
  1. ^ a b Shenker, Barry (1986). Intentional Communities (Routledge Revivals) : Ideology and Alienation in Communal Societies. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203832639. ISBN 978-0-203-83263-9. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  2. ^ Pitzer, D. E. (1989). "Developmental communalism: An alternative approach to communal studies". Utopian Thought and Communal Experience: 68–76.
  3. ^ Metcalf, William James (2004). The Findhorn book of community living. Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press. ISBN 9781844090327.
  4. ^ Butcher, A. A. (2002). Communal Economics (PDF). Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  5. ^ Rubin, Zach (31 August 2020). ""A Not-so-silent Form of Activism": Intentional Community as Collective Action Reservoir". Humanity & Society. 45 (4): 509–532. doi:10.1177/0160597620951945. ISSN 0160-5976. S2CID 225187879. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  6. ^ "What is Cohousing?". Canadian Cohousing Network. Archived from the original on 2022-02-01. Retrieved 1 February 2022.