(August/September 2010) I love how delighted and empowered ecovillage members can be when making decisions by consensus . . . when it's done well. But they can become discouraged and demoralized when consensus is practiced incorrectly. Fortunately there are simple remedies for this.
The most common misuse of consensus is blocking a proposal because it violates your personal values, or personal lifestyle choices or beliefs — rather than those of the group. Another distortion is blocking a proposal about one thing, when your objection is actually about something else. Two examples: ...
Diana Leafe Christian is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools To grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (New Society Publishers, 2003 and 2007, respectively), and editor/publisher of the free online Ecovillages Newsletter. A member of Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina, US, Diana teaches workshops and speaks at conferences internationally.
May East
Meanwhile, the economically driven development trend threatens the survival of Guizhous’s rich and diversified ethnic cultures. EDE Guizhou is expected to host 30 participants coming from Guizou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, officials from the Environmental Protection Bureau, PCD staff from field offices of the region and NGO members working in both urban and rural contexts. Read Full Story
May East is a Brazilian social change activist who has spent the last 30 years working internationally with music, indigenous people, women, anti-nuclear, environmental and sustainable human settlements movements. Since 1992 she has lived at the Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland where she is the Ecovillage Education Coordinator. May is a sustainability educator and works internationally as Programme Director of Gaia Education.
Ross Jackson
I mentioned last time that the year 1980 was significant as a turning point at which the USA and other economies reached their optimal scale (i.e. marginal benefits equaled marginal costs). After this date, marginal costs exceeded marginal benefits in what can be called “uneconomic growth”. This is also the point where the collapse of civilizations often begins according to historian Joseph Tainter’s studies. Interestingly, a number of other shifts occurred at about this time, all of which seemed to have contributed to the ongoing collapse, which will take several decades to complete.Ross Jackson, PhD, has for many years been an innovative leader in both the business and NGO worlds. He is chairman of Gaia Trust, a Danish-based charitable entity he co-founded in 1987 to promote a more sustainable and spiritual world. In his capacity as Gaia Trust Chairman, Ross, together with his Danish wife Hildur, is co-founder of the Global Ecovillage Network, (GEN) and Gaia Education and has supported hundreds of sustainability projects in dozens of countries over the years.
Max Lindegger
Mulch gardens are to permaculture what flat breads and chillies are to Mexico. Wherever I work, I introduce compost making and mulch gardens. The go so well together and are the beginning of abundance. While the gardens come in all shapes and sizes and need to be managed to suit the environment, they are easy to build and not much can go wrong. Read Full Story
Max was a primary partner in the design and development of the Award -winning Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, where he lives. He is a respected and sought-after teacher in the disciplines of sustainable systems. His reputation is born of 20 years of hands-on experience and leadership in the design and implementation of practical solutions to the challenges of sustainability. As the founder of the Global Ecovillage Network Oceania & Asia and the Ecovillage Research Group, Max participates in and contributes to the international flow of current thinking and best practice in the fields of sustainable systems design and education.
During the General Assembly of GEN-Europe, African and European ecovillage leaders met and discussed strategy for the future of GEN-Africa.
Guidelines for the recognition of indigenous and traditional villages as ecovillages were compiled by representatives from India, Thailand, Senegal, Congo, South Africa, Turkey and Italy.
The first building of the new Ecodorp Brabant in southern Holland, a passive energy ecobuilding, is rising near the town of Den Bosch. A team of volunteers and future ecovillagers have been laying foundations and erecting the roundwood frames for the building which will be constructed entirely of waste and renewable materials.
A first event was organised with the National Network of Municipalities for Sustainability and drew over 30 participants. A second course was held in Santiago and more than 40 activists from Chile’s alternative movement took part.
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