Can Ecovillages Save the World?

In this presentation I will show how “intentional Community” has been a feature of western civilisation for over 2000 years. I will briefly introduce Pythagoras, the Essenes, the Christian monastic tradition, communities associated with the Reformation in Europe and communities that sprung up in North America after the Europeans began to settle there. I will also mention communities during the Industrial Revolution, and more recently in the twentieth century. The latest wave of community building seems to be a response to the existential threat posed by the climate changing, the breakdown of economics and the multiple political challenges we are facing today. For the past quarter of a century the Global Ecovillage Network has been expanding world-wide and is one of the biggest networks of intentional community that has ever existed. My conclusion will be to show that ecovillages are experimental attempts to find solutions to the challenges that face us, and that there are increasing signs that some of these solutions are now beginning to be of interest to mainstream society. The presentation will be illustrated by slides, and hopefully will be short enough to stimulate a lively discussion.