An
intentional community is a planned
residential community designed to have a much higher degree of
teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common
social,
political,
religious, or
spiritual vision and are often part of the alternative society. They typically also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include
cohousing communities, residential
land trusts,
ecovillages,
communes,
survivalist retreats,
kibbutzim,
ashrams and
housing cooperatives. Typically, new members of an intentional community are selected by the community's existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners (if the land is not owned collectively by the community). Though intentional communities do not claim to be
utopias in the sense of
perfect places, many do attempt to live a different and
better sort of society, and as such many draw on historical utopian experiments or ideas in
utopian fiction.
Within
intentional communities the above terms have different meanings compared to the legal forms of
real estate ownership that may have the same name.
Characteristic
Purpose
The purposes of intentional communities vary. They may include sharing resources, creating family-oriented neighborhoods and living ecologically
sustainable lifestyles (
ecovillages).
Types of communities
Some communities are secular; others have a
spiritual basis. One common practice, particularly in spiritual communities, is communal meals. Commonly there is a focus on
egalitarian values. Other themes are
voluntary simplicity,
interpersonal growth and
self-reliance. Some communities provide services to disadvantaged populations, for example, war refugees, the homeless, or people with
developmental disabilities. Some communities operate learning or health centers.
Types of memberships
Many communities have different types or levels of membership. Typically, intentional communities have a selection process which starts with someone interested in the community coming for a visit. Often prospective community members are interviewed by a selection committee of the community or in some cases by everyone in the community. Many communities have a "provisional membership" period. After a visitor has been accepted, a new member is "provisional" until they have stayed for some period (often six months or a year) and then the community re-evaluates their membership. Generally, after the provisional member has been accepted, they become a full member. In many communities, the voting privileges and/or community benefits for provisional members are less than those for full members.
Christian intentional communities are usually composed of those wanting to emulate the practices of the earliest believers. Using the
biblical book of
Acts (and, often, the
Sermon on the Mount) as a model, members of these communities strive for a practical outworking of their individual faith in a corporate context.
A survey in the 1995 edition of the
Communities Directory, published by
Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), reported that 54% of the communities choosing to list themselves were rural, 28% were urban, 10% had both rural and urban sites, and 8% didn't specify.
Type of governance
The most common form of
governance in intentional communities is
democratic (64%), with decisions made by some form of
consensus decision-making or voting. Of the remainder, 9% have a
hierarchical or
authoritarian structure, 11% are a combination of democratic and hierarchical structure, and 16% don't specify. Many communities which were initially led by an individual or small group have changed in recent years to a more democratic form of governance.
See also
