Appalachian Collection

Intentional Communities for Sustainable Development in Southern Appalachia

 


Scope

Southern Appalachia is a region that is experiencing a large increase in population growth due to seasonal and full-time immigration, as visitors to the area are attracted to its beautiful and diverse environment. In order to maintain this natural beauty and provide adequate housing to all of Southern Appalachia's residents, it would be wise to carefully plan communities in housing clusters, promote cooperative social organization, and maintain natural resources through ecologically sound production and consumption. The answers to these problems rely on the development and implementation of environmentally friendly egalitarian communities. Intentional communities, cooperative housing, and eco-villages are becoming more popular and necessary in desirable locations such as this. This document is an introduction to the resources available on intentional communities for sustainable development in Southern Appalachia.

A good Introduction to this topic can be found in the following:

Communities Director y: A Guide to Cooperative Living . Langley, WA: Fellowship for Intentional Community. 440 pages. ASU REFERENCE: HX654 .D57 1995.

 

Some relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings
     ( Search by "Subject" in the online catalog using these headings) :

 

Frequently used Library of Congress Call Number ranges :

 

More information can be found in the Appalachian Collection Clippings File under the subject heading: Land Use -- Appalachia

Some Frequently Cited or Relevant Books include the following:

At Home in the Web of Life: A Pastoral Message on Sustainable Communities in Appalachia Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of This Land is Home to Me . Webster Springs, WV: Catholic Committee of Appalachia. 73 pages. ASU APP COLL STACKS: HC107 .A13 A8894 1995.

Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. A Socialist Utopia in the New South: The Ruskin Colonies in Tennessee and Georgia . Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 263 pages. ASU MAIN STACKS: HX655 .S68 B78 1996.

Egerton, John. Visions of Utopia: Nashoba, Rugby, Ruskin, and the "New Communities" in Tennessee's Past . Knoxville: Published in cooperation with the Tennessee Historical Commission [by] University of Tennessee Press, 1977. 95 pages. ASU APP COLL STACKS and ASU MAIN STACKS: HX655 .T2 E37.

Hicks, George Leon. Ideology and Change in an American Utopian Community . Urbana, IL: [s.n.], 1969. Thesis--University of Illinois. 1 reel, 342 leaves. ASU APP COLL MICROFILMS: MicF 94.

Kinkade, Kathleen. A Walden Two Experiment: The First Five Years of Twin Oaks Community . New York: Morrow, 1973. 271 pages. ASU MAIN STACKS: HX656 .T9 K5.

Schehr, Robert C. Dynamic Utopia: Establishing Intentional Communities as a New Social Movement . Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. 210 pages. ASU MAIN STACKS: HM281 .S343 1997.

 

Relevant Journals:

Communities Magazine: Journal of Cooperative Living . Available online at: http://fic.ic.org/cmag/ .

Utne Reader . Minneapolis, MN: Lens Pub. Co. Lib. has v. 51, 1992 to present. ASU PERIODICALS.

 

Abstracts and Indices helpful in an exhaustive search, but with limited returns for Southern Appalachia:

(Relevant search terms include "Alternative Lifestyles," "Collective Settlement," "Communes," "Communal Living," "Cooperative Living," "Cooperative Housing," Ecovillages," and "Intentional Communities .")

America: History and Life. A guide to the periodical literature in the American Studies field, including History, Folklore, and the Humanities.

Ingenta. Denver, CO: UnCover Co. Articles published since Fall 1988, in over 17,000 journals covering all subject areas. Records for articles indicate whether the source journal is owned within WNCLN . Updated regularly.

WorldCat . Access to over 36 million records of any type (books, journals, CDs, videos, etc.) cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 11th century. Updated daily.

 

Guides & Directories:

Communities Directory: A Guide to Cooperative Living . Langley, WA: Fellowship for Intentional Community. 440 pages. ASU REFERENCE: HX654 .D57 1995.

Directory of Intentional Communities . Evansville, IN: Fellowship for Intentional Community; Stelle, IL: Communities Publications Cooperative. 1 vol. ASU REFERENCE: HX654 .D57 1991.

Global Ecovillage Network . Updated regularly. Available at: http://www.gaia.org/services/Profile/ .

 

Internet Resources:

Earthaven: A Growing Neo-Tribal Ecovillage. http://earthaven.org/ .

The Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA) . http://www.gaia.org/secretariats/ena/ .

The Federation of Egalitarian Communities. http://www.thefec.org / .

The Gesundheit! Institute. http://www.patchadams.org/ .

Global Ecovillage Network. http://www.gaia.org/index.asp .

Heavenly Mountain. http://www.heavenly-mountain.com/ .

Intentional Communities. http://www.ic.org/ .

Twin Oaks Community. http://www.twinoaks.org/ .

Westwood CoHousing, Asheville, NC. http://westwoodcoho.home.mindspring.com/westwood.html .

 

Compiler: Brett Dennis Melchior
Date: 6 December 1998