Understanding Attitudes Conducive to Intentional Communities through Participatory Action Research

Shaping a vibrant future requires socio-technical innovations, many of which are pioneered by intentional communities. Given that social challenges within such communities present the most significant hurdles to success, this project aimed to support progress by:

a)              Identifying common attitudes supportive of community

b)             Exploring co-creative research methods that center the needs of communities

To both research in and study community, I founded a Participatory Action Research Group to consider: "Which attitudes are conducive to community?". Over two weeks, I then cycled with ten researchers through eight communities in Germany, stopping to gather first impressions and engage in informal conversations. In keeping with Aesthetic Research, we relied on art-based and dialogical research methods. Within a final workshop we organized 87 observed attitudes into six groups. To make these abstract findings actionable, we formulated them as principles:

1.              Be courageous - show yourself and be seen!

2.              Follow your curiosity and get involved with the unknown!

3.              Accept what you can’t change - not everything is in your hands!

4.              Take time for reflection and appreciation!

5.              Learn to hold contradictions and to deal with paradoxes creatively!

Stick to it - never stop starting!