Intentional Community: What Is An Intentional Community?

1.0 Introduction

Intentional community is a general term that refers to a wide variety of living alternatives. Shenker (2011) defines Intentional Communities as a relatively small coalesced group of individuals who have consciously, willfully and purposefully created a wholly new way of life with the intention of attaining distinct preset goals and objectives. Intentional communities consist of various groups of individuals with similar ideologies and shared motivations. Such communities may be established in rural or urban centres and may be underpinned by secular or religious doctrines as well as a mix of the two. Those who establish intentional communities base them on themes such as environmental sustainability, spirituality, economic cooperation,

A majority of contemporary intentional communities such as Friends of the Earth International, Jubilee Debt Campaign-Drop the Debt as well as Public Citizen 's Global Trade Watch are activists who oppose the ideologies of dominant individuals and corporations. Instead, they seek to establish sustainable alternative lifestyles. For instance, FOTEI movement is a group of organizations, which can be regarded as an intentional community. The movement’s objective is to oppose aspects such as neo-liberalism, globalization, domination and exploitation. They strongly denounce and aim to reverse neoliberal free trade policies promoted by governments in support of globalization. Jubilee Debt Campaign-Drop the Debt is another intentional community that comprises individuals whose desire is to achieve a world characterized by freedom from suppression as a result of unjust debts. The movement demands and supports new financial systems financial resources are utilized to achieve equality, justice and ensure the dignity of the world’s inhabitants. The other group is the Global Trade Watch, a USA based not for profit organization whose focus is on ameliorating adverse effects of globalization. These effects are as a result of the operations and ideologies of the World Trade Organization (WTO). They oppose and

FOTEI was formed as a result of the efforts of David Brower, who was the founder of Friends of the Earth, which he established in 1969, (Suter, 2002). Friends of the Earth was extensively involved in various initiatives and campaigns aimed at protecting the environment against unsustainable exploitation for economic benefits, (Suter, 2002), largely attributable to the globalization wave at the time. Due to the outcomes of globalization, there were concerns regards the state of the Earth as well as the direction of the globalization trend, (Suter,