Must Utopia be an island? Positioning an ecovillage ...

Social Sciences Directory Vol. 2, No. 4, 9-18, October 2013 th

Proceedings of the 11 conference of the International Communal Studies Association

Must Utopia be an island? Positioning an ecovillage within its region Marcus Andreas * Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Germany Video of conference presentation: http://youtu.be/lw-zDDBbvXY Abstract In this paper I will liken ecovillages to islands. Ecovillages maintain close relationships with each other but are often only marginally anchored to their respective bioregions. The picture of an isolated island is not consistent with the utopian vision of sustainable regional development. With reference to an ethnographic study of the ecovillage of Sieben Linden, I will therefore argue that the centralizing tendency of an isolated site could be profitably replaced with an attitude towards the surrounding region that builds solidarity and respects differences. The figurative representation of this ideal would be a peninsula. I am grateful to the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) for its support and to RCC Editor Dominic Kotas for translating this paper. My paper opens the Utopia panel of this year’s ICSA conference so I will begin by shortly introducing the concept. Utopia is the name of the most famous literary island, introduced in 1516 by Thomas More. In his novel of the same name, a seaman tells an English gentleman of his journey to Utopia and of what he sees as the island’s excellent sociopolitical organization. More thereby criticized the social structures of his homeland whilst suggesting how the living conditions may be improved. Like many other intentional communities, ecovillages are frequently associated with this mythical island. Ecovillages like Findhorn or Sieben Linden envision a sustainable, global world, and have established unique sites to realize this vision. Robert Gilman, in his classic treatise on ecovillages even imagines “a fully functioning modern society to be mostly comprised of eco-village units” (Gilman 1991: 10). However, More’s wordplay, which made Utopia by mixing the Greek eutopia (the good place) with outopia (the place that doesn’t exist), highlights a tension: We seek the good and will inevitably fail to achieve it. Authors like cultural anthropologist Joshua Lockyer have shown that even the journey to Utopia can nevertheless lead to significant transformations. Lockyer was able to document (2007) that Earthaven Ecovillage profited from the utopic endeavors of the intentional community Celo. In this regard the search for the “good place” remains meaningful, even if we fail to reach Utopia as planned.

*Email: [email protected] ISSN 2049-6869 http://dx.doi.org/10.7563/SSD_02_04_02

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However, I will address a different question in this paper: Why must Utopia be an island? Perhaps you are wondering what’s wrong with islands. Some of the most beautiful locations on the planet are islands (think of Mauritius, if you want)! To explain my question, I need to clarify the connection with ecovillages. I was myself surprised to encounter the motif of an island during my fieldwork in the German ecovillage of Sieben Linden. This ecovillage is situated not by the sea but in the Altmark, a region that, with the exception of the floods in summer 2013, is very dry. Nonetheless, I encountered defensive statements like “No, we are not an island,” or “We don’t want to be an island.” Along with sandy beaches, cohesion and simple living conditions were the positive qualities often associated with an island by Sieben Linden residents – both typical ecovillage requirements. Self-reliance but also a consequent isolation from the outside world were also highlighted as typical. Now, you can correctly object that islands are often anything but isolated. My ethnological colleagues are well aware that islands often maintain strong reciprocal relationships. Most famous in our discipline is the kula ring, an exchange system spanning 18 islands of an archipelago in the Western Pacific (Malinowski 1922). But islands nevertheless often serve as a symbol of isolation. Sieben Linden attracts thousands of visitors each year and is well connected to its peers – since 2008 it hosts one of the European offices of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). Nevertheless, the motif of the island remained in the discourse, and was frequently used by visitors as well as ecovillage residents. According to one of them, the island motif communicates how there is an “ocean between” the ecovillage and the rest of society. And this indicates how imitating an island represents a bad strategy, if the ultimate aim is to work together towards the utopic vision of a sustainable world. My paper is divided into three parts: (1) After highlighting a small part of the history of ecovillages, (2) I will outline the idea of Sieben Linden as an island and (3) present ethnographic moments which might hint at how to end the island existence. The attempt to free oneself from the island motif points towards a desire for its opposite: connectivity. Like with the island utopia, then, desire and reality occasionally collide. In spite of this, I shall end by suggesting a new path towards utopia. 1.

The History of Ecovillages

“Each ecovillage is an island,” Declan Kennedy, the first President of the GEN, has previously asserted (2001: 248). The “island network” of GEN was founded in Findhorn in 1995, with the participation of members of what became the Sieben Linden ecovillage. The current President, Kosha A. Joubert, has reflected on this period: “When the GEN was established, it was clear that we wanted to create an alternative to mainstream culture: green islands, lifeboats, a place of hope in a world of destructive capitalism (2010: 15).” Ross Jackson, as one of the founders of the GEN, applied to the United Nations in 1996 for $100 million to create 50 ecovillages around the world: “I cannot imagine any single use of funds that would have more leverage in moving the planet toward sustainability (2000: 79).” Although the application was declined, the GEN’s optimism persisted through to the next millenium. In

Must Utopia be an island? 11

this time, ecovillages have achieved a great deal. That being said, in 1996 the former GEN President Jonathan Dawson offered the following assessment: “One final challenge facing ecovillages is that of becoming less insular and more enmeshed in the fabric of their own bioregions. Given the high levels of outreach and engagement with the world […] this may seem a puzzling assertion. Nonetheless, it remains true that many ecovillages are only marginally anchored within their own bioregions (2006: 70)”. Dawson therefore demanded an increasing turn away from island existence, and he emphasized how the regional level has been neglected up to now – almost like neglecting the ocean on your doorstep.I began my ethnographic project in 2008, thus experiencing a critical moment in the history of ecovillages. In February of that year, the international GEN Committee had met in the ecovillage of Los Angeles and, with the GEN Manifesto II, initiated a U-turn: ‘We recognise that under prevailing conditions – high land prices, restrictive planning regulations and a progressively more individualistic society – the creation of new ecovillages has become more difficult than previously. Thus, at this time of greatest need and with existing ecovillages enjoying an unprecedented level of influence and profile, paradoxically, it is becoming significantly more difficult to create new ecovillages’ (GEN 2008: 1). In this context, Dawson explicitly advised the 2008 GEN General Assembly to stop establishing more “classical” ecovillages – a piece of advice that was repeated later in the same year by Kennedy. A veteran of the ZEGG ecovillage later gave me his assessment of the situation in very simple terms: “Ecovillages are no longer the progressive end of the sustainability movement.” Creating ecovillages had become more difficult, and for the Global North it was also questionable whether rural ecovillages represented the best strategic approach to changing the wider culture. Over half the world’s population lives today in cities; Dawson and Kennedy therefore pointed to corresponding models, like the urban and ethnically diverse L.A. ecovillage and, in particular, Transition Towns. These initiatives both situate themselves where ordinary people actually live, and thus avoid portraying themselves as islands. In my dissertation, I focused on questions around the identity and new orientation of ecovillages in the light of such changes (Andreas forthcoming; Andreas & Wagner 2012). In this paper, though, I would like to consider the integration of ecovillages into their respective (bio)regions with the help of the island motif. In 2008 the GEN Committee, following in the footsteps of Dawson, circulated the following recommendation to existing ‘classical’ ecovillages: “If ecovillages are to be relevant to the needs of communities seeking to become more sustainable, they need to see themselves increasingly in partnership with their neighbouring towns and villages, helping to build the resilience and skills base of their own bioregions (GEN 2008: 1).” But it really isn’t that easy to come from an island to the mainland, as the case of the Sieben Linden ecovillage shows. 2.

Sieben Linden as an Island

This ecovillage is situated in the Altmark, in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Since Sieben Linden’s founding over 15 years ago, only a few of the inhabitants have come to

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see the site as home. “What are we really doing here in the Altmark, where no one can relate to what we are doing?” asked one inhabitant in 2009. The answer is simple: Here, the ecovillage pioneers found the conditions necessary for its establishment in this area. Many former West German communal projects had sought to establish themselves in the so-called new Länder, not least in order to profit from the political openness and the cheap real estate of the former GDR. It was “the years after the Wende in which such things were possible,” as a former Sieben Linden founder put it. The forerunners of Sieben Linden had, in 1989, pursued the vision of a “self-reliant ecological village” – a truly self-sufficient island, in other words. However, since that time, the self-conception of the planned ecovillage became increasingly open. Ongoing selfsufficiency certainly remained as the goal, but so too did interaction with society. In 1996 it was declared that “This social-ecological initiative does not want to be a self-contained island; rather, it wants to become an inspiring example and a center for sustainable development in the Altmark (WoGe 1996).” Following this vision, the ecovillage project won an important prize for regional development in the newly-formed German states (DBU and DIFU 1996). And recognized in this way, the ecovillage project was, in 1996, invited to the small town of Poppau, fully establishing itself there in 1998. While many villages in the area had been afflicted by rural exodus, the ecovillage project further pursued a new development and thereby took into account the danger of becoming an island: “In the planned development, new and forward-looking forms of living and working should develop. The requirements for such a model are not present in the structures of existing villages. […] Such a project can be realized only as part of a new development. Given enough space, a peaceful coexistence of current and new settlements can be made possible (Gemeinde Bandau 1998: 13).” This peaceful coexistence is a reality today; the relationships with neighboring communities can be described as sustainable. However, the motif of the island persists, popular and unloved in equal measure, illustrating the previously marginal integration of the ecovillage into the region. To explain this phenomenon, the following quote from the official selfdescription from 2007 may be of help: “the ecovillage by no means wants to be an island, yet it often fails to avoid the characteristics of an island. When we are busy with everyday events, when our heads are full of our own social issues, some time can pass before the ‘outside’ world becomes relevant again (Strünke & Kommerell 2007: 39).” “We’re too concerned with ourselves (Kommerell 2005: 22)!” is how it is phrased at another point. Most residents nonetheless insist that their project must extend beyond their everyday lives. They want to come into contact with the ‘outside’ world. The leader of the ecovillage’s Circle of Friends explains: “We don’t just want to be an island and have a nice life for ourselves – We want to spread our ideas to the outside world and have them shared and passed on!” The ecovillage generally succeeds in this endeavor: As the headquarters of the European GEN offices, Sieben Linden is well connected, has already won several prizes for sustainability, and was recently named “PR-giant (Flieger 2012: 1)” of the German alternative communal scene. Findhorn’s visitor numbers are yet to be reached, but the (supra-regional)


stream of visitors to the ecovillage is considerable. The leader of the Sieben Linden cooperative thus argued in 2011: “We have 6,000 visitors each year […].This is by no means an island. However, our connections with our direct environment, with our direct surroundings, are not that great. On the ground a picture can emerge […] of us as an island, because the way we live is so completely different from how people in a 1.5 kilometer, 5 kilometer, and 10 kilometer radius live (Strünke in Andreas forthcoming).” The island motif is most utilized in relation to the (deficient) regional connections. Here in the Altmark, the differences with residents from surrounding towns like Poppau, Klötze or Beetzendorf are held responsible. One resident, for example, emphasized the structural differences: “Naturally there is no contact between Sieben Linden and Poppau, because the infrastructure in Sieben Linden is several levels higher than the infrastructure in Poppau. There’s nothing in Poppau except houses […] and a fire department.” In this context, according to the leader of the cooperative, the mere existence also of cultural differences should not be surprising, because the ecovillage “did not grow organically, even on these green fields; rather, it was established here.” That’s the path to which Sieben Linden and other ecovillages committed themselves, in contrast to Transition Towns. And the intentional search for alternatives, for example in the field of sustainability, is also meant to distinguish ecovillages, separating them from the mainstream. Geographer and sociologist Iris Kunze suggests (2009), that these differences are important, if any utopian transformation is to be achieved at all. But do such differences constitute unbridgeable gaps? A member of the PR working group in Sieben Linden drew two circles, distant from each other and without points of contact, to clarify: “I don't even know what to talk about with people from the Altmark.” Sieben Linden, in her view, exists in “Nowhere”, the wide ocean. What’s more, she doesn’t see any great need for the ecovillage to change how it is integrated into the region. “We don’t really need the region, it was like this from the beginning.” This impression is deceptive, in my opinion, and is contradicted in other places. Sieben Linden is certainly relatively autonomous within the region, but is in no way self-sufficient. Economic and social “holism” is made possible above all by the guests. They constitute a significant source of income for the ecovillage, allow the ecovillage to fulfill its own educational goals and are, ultimately, Sieben Linden’s on-site prescription against “island rage.” According to the leader of the Circle of Friends, it is the guests above all who contribute to “alleviating this sense of being an island. If we simply existed here without visitors and no one came from the region and we just sat here in our own swamp, that would be no good and, for me, would be unattractive. And not economically viable, either. And there is a kind of longing […], it would be nice if people didn’t all just gravitate here but rather established themselves in the region. […] I think that that would be very helpful, to develop those kinds of suburbs. And exchanges with other intentional communities too (Stützel in Andreas forthcoming).”

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Two possibilities are thus raised for escaping the isolation: (a) through the visits of guests and (b) through the settling of like-minded individuals in the region – almost like an archipelago around the island. A further option would be (c) to influence the surrounding villages, so that they come culturally “closer” to the island of their own volition. Certain residents of Sieben Linden committed to this third way, implementing the Transition Town concept in their region. Alongside the desire to contribute to regional development, this effort could also be understood as an attempt to change the position of the ecovillage in the region: less island, more solidarity. However, I would like to suggest that there is a fourth option in the pursuit of these goals: making friends with the people who are already there and with the way they are. 3.

Change in the Altmark?

In the wake of the 2008 GEN GA, a small group of Sieben Linden residents appropriated the Transition Town concept – not for the ecovillage, but in an effort to convert the surrounding towns and villages. Some contacted people they knew in the region to set up a Transition initiative, called the Energiewende Beetzendorf. Others met with four other European ecovillage projects to set up a so-called Transition Journey, a two-year project supported by the EU. Together they attempted to implement the Transition Concept, to connect with their surrounding regions, and not least to escape their island existence. In what follows I will present a few ethnographic recollections of the Journey (Andreas forthcoming). (a) Among their peers. The first episode highlights the jockeying for position within the ecovillage movement. As an example I have chosen a presentation by the Austrian Keimblatt ecovillage project. In 2010, Keimblatt was still looking for a site and had explicitly taken Sieben Linden as a model. During the Transition Journey, the other ecovillage projects were given the same presentation that Keimblatt used in its search for a site. However, when presenting to mayors and officials they would not refer to themselves as an ecovillage but as a settlement cooperative in the manner of an intentional community. Among the larger intentional communities in Europe Keimblatt described itself as the only (planned) project orienting itself towards a Widespread Impact. Conversely, according to Keimblatt’s model, Sieben Linden was Idealistic (Strigl et al. 2011: 22) – through their example they would attract mostly peers, who were, in Keimblatt’s view, “already concerned” with collective and ecological ways of thinking. Keimblatt, conversely, addressed itself to “society.” Members of Sieben Linden later contested this assessment of their approach as an “idealistic project.” Rather they emphasized their authenticity: “We are how we are” – in contrast to the members of Keimblatt, who did not even refer to themselves as an ecovillage if timeserving. At the same time, paradoxically though, the Sieben Linden residents were happy to see any indication that they were no longer being put in the “ecovillage drawer,” as the leader of the Circle of Friends highlighted. And in 2005 she herself agreed with the assessment that the development of Sieben Linden was mainly aligned with “our fellow members of the alternative scene (Stützel 2005: 26).” She was worried about “giving off an air of elitism and arrogance, an attitude that would clearly hinder our integration into the


region; a kind of ‘we’re so ecologically-aware and better than you’ attitude (Stützel 2005: 26).” As the principal point from that episode I’d like to suggest a more strategic re-orientation towards the region. I argue that this would not harm the authenticity of Sieben Linden, but ultimately serve their cause. (b) In the region. The residents of Sieben Linden had approached the cofounding of the Energiewende Beetzendorf cautiously. They had deliberately warded off concerns within the community that the ecovillage could undercut the region. They were careful to involve local residents and they published an internal statement, in which it was made very clear that the Transition Project was not an ecovillage project. This approach proved successful and the Transition Project took two of 16 seats on the local council. However, as it happened, at least one person subsequently left the Transition initiative after reading a critical article written by an ecovillage member. A colleague in the PR Working Group therefore wondered whether, for the Transition Journey, Sieben Linden would have to retreat from view and be less visible in order to reach others. The ecovillage wanted to be more heavily involved in the council, and this proved only possible within the context of the Transition Initiative. The problem was, it seemed, that success was possible only when the ecovillage or the Transition Initiative were not central figures. The local council decided after a long struggle, for example, to participate in a regional energy initiative – in the very meeting where the representative of the Transition Initiative was not present (Andreas forthcoming). Where Sieben Linden envisaged for itself a central position in the region, the Italian ecovillage Torri Superiore assumed a more modest position in the Transition Journey. A Torri representative thus expressed understanding with people in the corresponding region who saw in the newcomers an attack on their identity. The ecovillage residents were in a far more comfortable position: “We are convinced that we are already on the right road. […] Our basic beliefs are not questioned, we are not under attack.” In the Torri ecovillage, residents would attempt to exercise humility: “In general, people from Torri don't want to be the ‘big’ information holders or experts towards the locals.” The ecovillagers would generally attempt to attach themselves to existing activities, because, as they put it, “We are entering their landscape. They were first, we second.” In the remaining space I can only outline a few further points, but I would like to highlight how the region seems to be increasingly ready to follow some of the suggestions and example of ecovillages. In Sieben Linden this tendency is apparent in the foundation of the Energiewende Beetzendorf or the joining of the regional energy initiative – developments that, however, functioned above all when the ecovillage did not position itself in the center, a position that would relegate the region to a passive role on the outskirts. What is important here to note, is that the presumption of an asymmetrical give-and-take relationship is seen as given. I would like to argue that the ecovillage also needs the region – to make its vision of sustainability a reality, but not only for this. One member of the PR Working Group, for example, also expressed her hope that the Transition Initiative could provide long-term support that would enable Sieben Linden to “become normal” and to develop normal

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relationships with the region. In her view, people would need to see that the ecovillages are not trying to manipulate them. The transition concept should therefore take on the role of a bridge as “something in-between village and ecovillage”. The region may also help the ecovillagers to feel at home and to find a regional anchor for their own identity. It therefore seems to me counterproductive to refer to alternatives, in this case the concept of one’s own island. And I also don’t believe that we are actually talking about two distinct circles that don’t intersect. A Sieben Linden resident thus argued, for example, for recognition of the modest and often unloved concept of intersection: “ ‘We have lots of very conventional things here, and we need money, we build houses and so on, that’s all very conventional. […] This is the crux of the matter, I think: One can live fruitfully in an ecovillage and be in contact with the environment only when one also has an appreciation of the conventional world, in a sense. And that’s a philosophical question or a question of personal belief. If one says, “ah, it’s all shit, what goes on outside”,’ it’s deliberately devaluing that way of life (Anonymized informant in Andreas forthcoming).” 4.

Future Prospects

The most famous definition of an ecovillage as ‚a great utopian design’ comes from Robert and Diane Gilman. However, most existing ecovillages, according to Robert Gilman (1991), have not even come anywhere near the status of a true village. They display a far greater centralizing tendency, with a collective decision-making process. “But real villages […] have many different centers of initiative: the village governing body itself and the many autonomous enterprises, associations, and projects of its residents—which together comprise the physical, economic, and social fabric of village life (Gilman in Christian 2008).” In 1999 Gilman therefore expanded his original definition, adding that ecovillages must exhibit “multiple centers of initiative (Gilman in Christian 2008).” It is his belief that ecovillages increasingly transcend the template for intentional communities and thus become “real” villages, with many hubs. Similarly essential for the region, it seems to me, is the overcoming of too strong a centralizing tendency and a growing recognition of different regional centers, between which a lively give-and-take occurs. “Think global, act local” – such is an old legacy of the globalization debate of the previous century, and it remains valid: ecovillages have developed impressive, well-connected sites that offer a counterpart to the general trend for globalization. But in so doing, they have often ignored the regional level. Following a visit to the Copenhagen climate summit, a Sieben Linden resident thus expressed doubts about the local Transition Initiatve. Beetzendorf? She didn’t see it as a good thing “to establish ourselves in our own region and to forget about the third world.” In spite of this, I would like to encourage ecovillages to pursue their regional strategies – with as much modesty as possible. It may well be that, at first, this doesn’t contribute to sustainable regional development. But in my judgment it would already be a considerable achievement for an ecovillage to thereby succeed in developing a less insular identity. As a Torri member put it: “It’s part of sustainability. Communication is not just a tool, it is about building a language to communicate.”


The island motif is increasingly fading from the ecovillage scene, which is to be welcomed. Or, as the new GEN President Joubert wrote on the fifteenth anniversary of the GEN, when she was still a resident of Sieben Linden: “The identity of the “outside role” and the idea that it should enable the founding of as many ‘classical’ ecovillages as possible is dissipating (2010: 15).” However, this change had, as Dawson recently argued, “relatively little to do with conscious choices or increased outreach efforts made by ecovillages themselves (2013: 217),” but more with transformations in wider society. For a further successful interplay between international societies and regions, I recommend not the leveling of all differences but rather mutual respect and an interest in the respective differences. In Sieben Linden’s case, I think that this might imply an attitude change and finding a constructive answer to the inverted question: “What are we doing here in the Altmark, where we can’t relate with what others are doing?” One thing in common is simply the geographical center of local life, which is the same for everyone in the Altmark. And although the region doesn’t seem to have much to offer to cosmopolitan ecovillagers, three of the ecovillage residents have joined the local fire station in Poppau in 2013. I count this as a positive step. As an alternative to the island, then, I would like finally to offer the motif of the peninsula. According to Friederike Habermann (2011) peninsulas in this context are “not islandremedies but rather open spheres of experience in which other implications can be found”. The challenging task is both to carry the utopic vision in the direction of the high seas and to make it increasingly possible for other people to access this experience. In academic terms one might think of heterotopia (Foucault 1967) instead of utopia, as Meijering has done for intentional communities (2006; Meijering, Huigen & van Hoven 2007). Thinking of a peninsula means taking the idea of ecovillages across the headland and right onto the “mainstream” mainland. For an example of this process, Habermann points explicitly to the Sieben Linden ecovillage (2009: 138). References Andreas, Marcus (forthcoming) Positionierung im Wandel. Ethnographie eines Ökodorfes. Andreas, Marcus and Wagner, Felix (2012) “For whom? For the future!” Ecovillage Sieben Linden as a model and research project, in Marcus Andreas and Felix Wagner (Eds.) Realizing utopia. Ecovillage endeavours and academic approaches, RCC Perspectives 2012 / 8, pp. 135-147, Munich, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC), available from: http://www.carsoncenter.unimuenchen.de/download/publications/perspectives/2012_perspectives/1208_ecovillages_web_bw.pdf (accessed 5 September 2013) Christian, Diana Leafe (2008) Robert Gilman on “multiple centers of initiative”, Ecovillage news, 2008 September, available from: http://www.ecovillagenews.org/wiki/index.php/Robert_Gilman_on_%E2%80%9CMultiple_Centers_of_Initiative%E 2%80%9D (accessed 5 September 2013) Dawson, Jonathan (2006) Ecovillages. New frontiers for sustainability, Foxhole / UK, Green Books. Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) and Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik (DIFU) (Eds.) (1996) TAT-Orte. Gemeinden im ökologischen Wettbewerb. 1996, Berlin, DIFU. Flieger, Burghard (2012) Wohnen und Arbeiten verbinden, Contraste. Die Monatszeitung für Selbstorganisation, 332 (29), p. 1. Foucault, Michel (1967) Of other spaces, available from: http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html (accessed 5 September 2013)

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Gemeinde Bandau (1998) Bebauungsplan Ökodorf Poppau – Sieben Linden mit örtlicher Bauvorschrift. Stellungnahmen / Anregungen gem. § 4 / 3 (2) BauGB. Gilman, Robert (1991) The eco-village challenge, In Context, 29, p. 10, available from: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC29/Gilman1.htm (accessed 5 September 2013) Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) (2008) GEN manifesto II, available from: http://ecovillages.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/gen-manifesto-ii.pdf (accessed 5 September 2013) Habermann, Friederike (2011) Weg vom Geldfokus, Oya. Anders denken. Anders leben, 08 / 2011, available from: http://www.oya-online.de/article/read/408-weg_vom_geldfokus.html (accessed 5 September 2013) Habermann, Friederike (2009) Halbinseln gegen den Strom. Anders leben und wirtschaften im Alltag, Königstein / Taunus, Ulrike Helmer. Jackson, Ross J. T. (2000) We can do it. We will do it. And we ARE doing it! Building an ecovillage future, San Francisco, Robert D. Reed. Joubert, Kosha A. (2010) Von der grünen Insel zur eingebundenen Inspirationsplattform. Ökodörfer und intentionale Gemeinschaften der heutigen Zeit, in Einfach Gut Leben e.V. (Ed.) Eurotopia. Gemeinschaften und Ökodörfer in Europa, pp. 14-17, Poppau, Einfach Gut Leben e.V. Kennedy, Declan (2001) The eco-village movement, especially in Europe, in Saskia Poldervaart, Harrie Jansen and Beatrice Kesler (Eds.) Contemporary utopian struggles. Communities between modernism and postmodernism, pp. 248-253, Amsterdam, Aksant. Kommerell, Julia (2005) Thema. Region und Ökodorf, Rundbrief Ökodorf Sieben Linden, 96, p. 22. Kunze, Iris (2009) Soziale Innovationen für eine zukunftsfähige Lebensweise. Gemeinschaften und Ökodörfer als experimentierende Lernfelder für sozial-ökologische Nachhaltigkeit, Münster, Ecotransfer. Lockyer, Joshua P. (2007) Sustainability and utopianism. An ethnography of cultural critique in contemporary intentional communities, Dissertation, Athens / Georgia, The University of Georgia. Malinowski, Bronislaw (1922) Argonauts of the Western Pacific. An account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagos of Melanesian New Guinea. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. Meijering, Louise, Huigen, Paulus and van Hoven, Bettina (2007) Intentional communities in rural spaces, Tijdscrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 98 (1), pp. 42-52. Meijering, Louise (2006) Making a place of their own. Rural intentional communities in northwest Europe, Dissertation, Utrecht / Groningen, University of Groningen. More, Thomas (1516) Utopia, Leuven. Strigl, Alfred et al. (2011) Go! for Ökodorf. Modellsiedlung “Ökodorf”. Gelebtes Beispiel ganzheitlicher Nachhaltigkeit, Wien, Plenum. Strünke, Christoph and Kommerell, Julia (2007) In der Öffentlichkeit stehen, in Freundeskreis Ökodorf e.V. (Ed.) Sieben Linden. Lebensentwurf und Realität. Visionen, Alltag, Gemeinschaft, Ökologie, Ökonomie und Spiritualität. Eine Textsammlung, pp. 39-40, Poppau, Freundeskreis Ökodorf e.V. Stützel, Eva, in Roeder, Simone (2005) 1 Viertel Gemeinderat in Poppau. Ein Interview, Rundbrief Ökodorf Sieben Linden, 96, pp. 25-27. Wohnungs- und Siedlungsgenossenschaft Ökodorf e.G. (WoGe) (1996) Siedlungs- und Regionalkonzept Ökodorf 2000. Eine Information der Wohnungs- und Siedlungsgenossenschaft Ökodorf e.G., Groß Chüden, WoGe.

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