Reflections following the ICSA conference and the accompanying tours

Plenary session at the 2022 ICSA conference in Denmark

If in the previous conference the emphasis was on integrating communities, following its location in the CAMPHILL communities and previously there was an emphasis on communes, such as its location in the commune (Tamera), this time the emphasis was on mainly ecological communities, secular, with different degrees of sharing, even some of them are diverse even among the groups that make up the overall community. Before and after the conference we visited 8 different communities, all of them interesting.

These are communities that are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from conventional urban life, where ecology is often the focal point, but in addition are looking for personal freedom but also to fight the alienation of “normal” life. Some include people with disabilities. All communities are in constant change: there are some that, very much like a kibbutz, started with a very cooperative structure, including shared accommodation, and at the same time as the kibbutz’s period of change, they also changed in a similar way.

Others, which actually started as private and ecological CO-HOUSING, are sprouting activities, buildings and a lot of community volunteering.

In all of them, despite the search for personal freedom, there are community regulations, or screening of candidates, houses for community activities and more. In all of them there is a turnover of people in the community, and they all have a waiting list of candidates. However, in most of them the second generation is not attached to the values ​​or tasks of the parents. And this is true for cooperative communities as well as most others.

The daily practical arrangements are very diverse. For example, shared meals or a shared farm. All of them have democratic arrangements, at different levels of institutionalization. In some of the communities there are two levels of communality: the general level, and an intermediate level, where there are “groups” about 6-8 residential communities with joint activities, a community house, and other initiatives according to the wishes of the group members.

What stands out is the fact that usually the sharing initiatives grow from below, and sometimes develop between a small group of local members and sometimes between members of different groups.

The general conclusion is that although in cooperative communities the process is one of privatization, by and large in all of them there is a search for an alternative way to the conventional capitalist society. In all of them, the search is constant, and creates constant change. Although usually the next generation does not join, other young people do ask to be hired.

Many know about the kibbutz, or have visited it, and its influence exists in the background. Many organizations deal with the communities, but the general public is probably not aware of the phenomenon, and not only in Israel. It is difficult to convey to the kibbutz concrete proposals that we were exposed to at the conference or during the visit, but it is possible to understand that the search for a different balance between the individual and the community in which the kibbutz is engaged, is not the fruit of development in the kibbutz only, but a response to a universal reality that affects designated and cooperative communities in general.

Blog Post One

Jan and Anton at the recent ICSA conference in Denmark

It’s such a joy to reconnect every three years with communal scholars and friends from communities who have haven’t seen in between conferences.

The post-conference tour concluded and I felt that I needed time to process not only the rich content that was provided in the paper presentations and workshops, but also the many conversations I had between sessions, during mealtimes and in the evenings over a drink.

I’d like to thank Ole, Elinnor and Dan, who put together a wonderfully successful ICSA 2022 conference. I’m already looking forward to the next one!