Act: Inspiration

Ecovillage Future: And How Access to Land is a Barrier (Part VI of Ecological Civilisation Series)

By Samuel Alexander, originally published by Simplicity Institute

April 15, 2022

What is an Ecovillage and how do practices and values different from ordinary life within consumer capitalist societies? And what would the world look like if there were millions of Ecovillages emerging to replace industrial civilisation? In this presentation Dr Samuel Alexander examines these question and draws on research which attempts to measure the energy and resource reductions of Ecovillage living. After reviewing an inspiring example of the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Alexander examines how access to land can be a barrier to embracing such low-impact living.

This is Part VI of the Ecological Civilisation series.

00:00 – Introduction

02:18 – Review

07:25 – Ecovillage analysis

17:59 –Land as a barrier

33:03 – Conclusion

The introduction to this series is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxC-r…

The series is grappling with the problems of consumerism and the growth economy; envisioning alternative, post-carbon ways of life; and considering what action can be taken, both personally and politically, to help build an ecological civilisation.

New presentations will be added to this playlist over time:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…

You can support this channel by purchasing an e-book from the Simplicity Institute, available on a ‘pay what you can’ basis (edit the price as you choose for a donation):

https://249897.e-junkie.com

Paperbacks are available here:

https://au.permacultureprinciples.com…

Samuel Alexander’s work is available here:

http://samuelalexander.info

The Simplicity Institute website is here:

https://simplicityinstitute.org

LINKS REFERENCED IN THE PRESENTATION

Joshua Lockyer’s research on Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage:

https://journals.librarypublishing.ar…

Ted Trainer’s quantitative research on low-impact living:

http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue…

Short analysis of land as a barrier to sustainable living by Samuel Alexander and Alex Baumann:

https://theconversation.com/access-to…

Long analysis of land as a barrier to sustainable living by Alex Baumann, Samuel Alexander, and Peter Burdon:

https://www.ppesydney.net/content/upl…

The work above draws inspiring from the Neighbourhoods the Work model developed by Chris Baulman:

https://ntwonline.weebly.com

OTHER ECOVILALGE LINKS

Link to Dancing Rabbit: https://www.dancingrabbit.org

Findhorn Ecovillage: https://www.findhorn.org

Global Eco Village Network: https://ecovillage.org

Thanks to Andrew Doodson, Jordan Osmond, and Antoinette Wilson for offering invaluable production advice.

The opening image is kindly provided by Melissa Davis.

Further image references are available here:

http://samuelalexander.info/image-ref…

The music is provided by Mortimer’s Method: https://mortimersmethod.bandcamp.com

 

Teaser photo credit: An eco-house at Findhorn Ecovillage with a turf roof and solar panels By W.L Tarbert – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1274836

Samuel Alexander

Dr. Samuel Alexander, co-director of the Simplicity Institute, is a lecturer at the Office for Environmental Programs, University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Critical Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ into the Master of Environment. He is also a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. He is author of eighteen books, including Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary (2018), Art Against Empire: Toward an Aesthetics of Degrowth (2017), Just Enough is Plenty: Thoreau’s Alternative Economics (2016), Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits (2015), Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for Everyone, Forever (2015), and Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation (2013), and he is editor of Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture (2009) and co-editor of Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future (2014). A full publication list is available here.

As well as his academic work, in recent years Sam has been working on a ‘simpler way’ demonstration project which became the subject of a documentary, ‘A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity‘. He is also founder of the Simplicity Collective, a website and social network dedicated to exploring the relationships between voluntary simplicity, energy descent, and post-growth / degrowth economics.  Dr. Alexander’s PhD thesis, conducted through Melbourne Law School, is entitled “Property beyond Growth: Toward a Politics of Voluntary Simplicity”.

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