VIII. Earth Earns: An Open Participatory Earthropocene to Astropocene CoCreative Future

3. Sustainable Ecovillages: Social Protocell Communities

			The cohousing community shown here offers an exemplary case of intentional liveable habitation. Some 35 semi-attached dwellings are clustered together with a vegetale garden to preserve most landscape in a natural state. About 100 people of every age and walk abide in supportive, cooperative peace and quiet, with little turnover. Each residence has its own kitchen or members can share meals and friendships in a common house. Economic costs are at least in half, so one can work when they want and have an unburdened life. Cars are parked in a separate lot and often shared. This movement began in Scandanavia and has now spread to thousands of actual and planned ecovillages in the United States, Africa, and worldwide.
	Photo Credit to John Fabel and Kraus-Fitch Architects

It is vital to appreciate that humankind has not only realized an overall genesis cosmology but one whose nested development proceeds by the same creative complementary system at each and every stage. A dynamic, emergent scale of being and becoming accrues as the formative principles infuse and empower everywhere. The great benefit is that once discovered, these common themes can be respectfully carried forth to a genesis futurity. As the Major Evolutionary Transitions Scale module above notes, a next planetary phase is not meant to be a uniform globalization. Rather akin to life’s origin, a next phase would seem to be viable “protocell” communities (search Claes Andersson, Robin Dunbar, et al). Rather than a uniform globalization, often misunderstood, a new evolitionary stage might actually be a biospheric network of myriad urban and rural communities. Examples of constant guiding principles might be:

• An equitable, reciprocal partnership of women and men. (Complementarity)

• A mutuality of free individuals joined in shared relationship. (Creative Union)

• Spontaneous free association without central authority. (Self-organization)

• Modular personal diversity in a beneficial social unity. (Symbiosis)

• Coherent boundaries for self-referential communities. (Autopoiesis)

In an epilogue to The Human Web (2003), the eminent historian William McNeill makes just such a proposal. For thousands of years, homo sapiens dwelt in familial bands of 50 to 100 members. But with the fragmentation, diaspora and suburbanization of modern societies, this identity and cohesion has been lost. Based on an organic evolution with a recurrence of the same cellular form, McNeill advises that our social future should again be composed of “primary communities” of similar number of participants. Such a 21st century recovery of African ubuntu wisdom of “I am because We are” would be wonderful. These books, magazines and websites herein introduce a vital option to a consumptive, unjust, violent and unsustainable civilization. Also included are entries to an organic, environmental architecture.

2020: As the extended introduction cites, by way of 21st century findings about an organic genesis whose developmental emergence proceeds by nested symbiotic member/group cellular unions, a next appropriate phase can be sighted. At our consequent whole Earth moment, appears that supportive communities of a nominal one hundred at liberty members might be an appropriate “social protocell” version.

Andersson, Claes and Petter Tornberg. Toward a Macroevolutionary Theory of Human Evolution: The Social Protocell. Biological Theory. December, 2018.
Bohm, Steffen, et al. Ecocultures: Blueprints for Sustainable Communities. London: Routledge, 2014.
Foster, Sheila and Christian Iaione. Co-Cities: Innovative Transitions Toward Just and Self-Sustaining Communities Cambridge: MIT Press, 2022.
Kammen, Daniel. Sustainable Communities. Scientific American. December, 2017.
Litfin, Karen. Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community. London: Polity Books, 2014.
Miller, Frederica. Ecovillages Around the World: 20 Regenerative Designs for Sustainable Communities. Scotland: Findhorn Press, 2018.
Wilson, David Sloan and Dag Olav Hessen. Blueprint for the Global Village. Cliodynamics. 5/1, 2015.

2023:

Cohousing Network. www.cohousing.org. A clearing house for these communities springing up in rural and urban settings across Europe and North America. On average, 100 people of all ages and situations reside in private, separate or attached, energy-efficient dwellings clustered about a multifunction common house. This compact mini-village leaves remaining land free for gardens or in its natural state.

Ecotopia Network. www.ecotopia.com/ecovillage. An eclectic international site for practical info such as appropriate technology and solar energy. Communities in Bolivia, Venezuela, Honduras are given as good examples.

Fellowship for Intentional Community. www.ic.org. This is the website for the journal Communities. Since many fledgling alternatives are not written up in books, this website and magazine reports on real efforts to live free and well in sensible harmony with neighbors and nature. This group also publishes the Communities Directory - A Guide to Intentional Communities and Cooperative Living.

Findhorn Foundation. www.ecovillagefindhorn.com. On the east coast of Scotland, near Inverness, resides a legendary intentional community. Founded over thirty years ago, Findhorn has become a center for local and global mindful self-sufficiency. Among various programs is the Ecovillage Project which emphasizes sustainable land use, ecological architecture, renewable energy, cooperative, social economies, inclusive decision-making processes, cultural and spiritual diversity, integrated holistic health care, worldwide networking, integral education.

On a global level there is an increasingly urgent need for positive models which demonstrate a viable, sustainable human and planetary future. Ecovillages or sustainable communities address this need, looking at sustainability not only in environmental but also in social, economic and spiritual terms.

Global Ecovillage Network. www.gaia.org. A portal for learning about ecological community development, activities and concerns. An extensive directory covers resource areas such as agriculture, education, alternative technology, energy, building, funding, business, health, community, permaculture, decision making, spirit and mind, ecological design, sustainability and environment, ecological living, urban ecology, economics, waste management, and ecovillage design.

Indigo Development. www.indigodev.com. A worthwhile think tank for “communities as living systems” and especially creating for ecologically sound industries.

Institute for Sustainable Communities. www.iscvt.org. Grass-roots resources for ...helping communities around the world address environmental, economic, and social challenges to build a better future shaped and shared by all.

Positive News From Around the World. www.positivenews.org.uk. This is the website for a subscription newspaper of the title name which is a unique report of good things people are doing everywhere to create a much saner and liveable planet. Typical articles are about urban community gardens, the Barefoot College program to bring solar electricity for water pumps to remote villages in the Himalayas, and a Great Rethinking conference.

Sustainable Communities Network. www.sustainable.org. An omnibus portal for all sorts of information about forming and maintaining positive life experiences in viable societies.

We Over Me Farm. www.weovermefarm.com. A PBS NewsHour report on September 16, 2016 (Google) brought to our notice this inner city, college based, endeavor for sustainable agriculture and community. And we find just wonderful that its name recognizes and resolves our social conflicts of individuals and groups, agendas and cooperation. Sadly, as the awful presidential election campaign is a vicious, destructive clash of me and We, animus and anima archetypes, which are naturally complementary. Why can no one see this?

u>Our Mission: To transform the health and well-being of under-resourced communities in southern Dallas by providing fresh, healthy, affordable food options and by educating and empowering future generations to take better care of themselves, their environments, and their communities.

Paul Quinn College is a private, historically black college located on 144 acres just south of downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The college is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Paul Quinn College is the oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River and the nation's first urban work college.

Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures. www.yesmagazine.com. From Bainbridge Island, Washington State, a publication by the Positive Futures Network which reports on people, projects and institutions making vital contributions to a sustainable future. The Spring 2000 issue features “New Stories” from Thomas Berry, Mae-Wan Ho, Jean Houston, John Todd and Joanna Macy in search of an ecological cosmology.

Alexander, Christopher. The Phenomenon of Life. Berkeley, CA: Center for Environmental Structure, 2002. The first volume in the iconoclast architect’s long anticipated four volume series The Nature of Order. Although a strident effort is made to situate his human scale and friendly dwellings in an ecological rather than a mechanistic nature, research for the long overdue volume seems to have stopped around 1980. But this book along with Alexander’s earlier classic works such as A Pattern Language offer mindful alternatives to the present sterility of most buildings.

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