Top Ten Resources on Intentional Community
Note: there are NO affiliate links on this page. If you buy books recommended here, I do not receive any kickback. I have included purchase links for your convenience and to help you avoid using Amazon.
Two websites/organizations and a bunch of books:
- Foundation for Intentional Community
- This website is my number one recommended resource at this time for learning about both specific intentional communities you might want to get in touch with, and information on intentional communities generally. You can use their directory to find intentional communities by type and/or region. They offer online courses and workshops at affordable prices with some basic webinars offered by donation.
- Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian
- Published in 2003, this may be the best practical, step-by-step guide you will find for starting an intentional community. It covers everything from how many people you need, to establishing your vision and decision-making process, to forming a legal entity, and finding land.
- SOIL: Earthaven Ecovillage’s School of Integrated Living
- Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina has been working for over 30 years at their mission, to create “a living laboratory and educational seed bank for a sustainable human future.” SOIL offers free and low cost online workshops and events, sharing about their living experiment in holistic, sustainable community.
- Building Belonging: Your Guide to Starting a Residential Intentional Community by Yana Ludwig
- From the publisher’s description: “both a practical guide for how to start a residential intentional community and a collective framework for addressing the racial, social, ecological and economic disparities affecting all aspects of the living experience for humans, land, and its co-inhabitants. It offers an unprecedented perspective to creating intentional community that speaks directly to the reader who wants collective answers and who sees the deep benefit of community living as a key piece to addressing systemic issues.”
- Community Led Housing: A Cohousing Development Approach by Ronaye Matthew and Margaret Critchlow
- From the publisher: “In this in-depth guide, Matthew and Critchlow share their decades of experience on the ground and in the field. They outline the entire development process and break it down into accessible goals and informed takeaways for anyone interested in a collaborative approach to housing.”
- The Practice of Belonging by Lisa Kentgen
- From the publisher: “After two years meeting with different communities in the US, psychologist Lisa Kentgen identified 6 key traits of vibrant, healthy communities that we can all apply to our own lives and networks: Commitment to care; Acceptance; Diversity; Skillful conflict resolution; Bonding rituals; Hospitality. Each chapter focuses on one of these traits, highlighting a particular community as a case study of how it can be put into practice.”
- Builders of the Dawn: Community Lifestyles in a Changing World by Corrine McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson (free to borrow from The Internet Archive)
- From the publisher: “Life in communities can provide powerful training in the art of relationships-learning to live as an interrelated part of a whole system. Advice on how to start intentional communities, and the principles, benefits and challenges of choosing to live cooperatively or communally.”
- Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption by Ma’ikwe Ludwig
- From the publisher: “a book that advocates for citizen-led, community-based action first and foremost. Why wait for the government when you can take action today, with your neighbors? From small solutions to the full re-invention of the systems we find ourselves in, this book mixes anecdote with data-based research to bring you a wide range of options that all embody compassion, creativity, and cooperation.”
- Community Land Trust Manual (free download)
- For those ready to delve into the possible legal structure for a community land trust project.
- A New Monastic Handbook: From Vision to Practice by Ian Mobsby and Mark Berry
- From the publisher: “Two leading practitioners of new monasticism open up the movement’s spiritual landscape and its distinctive calling and gifts within today’s church. Practical experiences and stories are set alongside reflection and liturgies as a creative resource for all who are already involved in, or are exploring intentional living in community.”