Communities of Resistance: The Success and Resilience of Intentional Communities in North America

Intentional communities are residential developments that are created by noncorporate actors with the primary purposes of meeting the social and environmental needs to the community. Many intentional communities play an important role in social and environmental movements. In our neo-liberal age, it has become a struggle to establish and sustain an intentional community. The main objectives of this paper is to answer three central research questions related to the issues contemporary intentional communities face:

(1) How can intentional communities be established in late capitalism, where property ownership, real estate speculation and land ownership concentration has lead to both high urban and rural land values and where cookie-cutter developments are favoured in zoning and by-laws? (2) What are the factors that effect intentional communities commitment to social and environmental issues and participation in broader social and environmental movements? (3) How can intentional communities successfully thrive long-term in our time and spatial context of late capitalism?

The goal is to examine the situation of North American intentional communities and to determine what conclusions can be made about their establishment, longevity and commitment to its social purposes. The research method used include a review of existing literature on intentional communities and a survey sent to 1302 intentional communities identified at the time of the survey. I conclude that Intentional communities have the power to change our world for the better while providing many additional benefits to our personal well-being and should be fully supported. I provide a series of recommendations for intentional communities including adopting best practices, establishing and sustaining a sense of community, and increasing density. I recommend that intentional communities organize in order to lobby government to (re-)establish housing support programs and funding. Finally, I propose that intentional communities build strong connections to other progressive movements in order to mutually support and benefit each other.