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

Over the last ten years Dr Samuel Alexander has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Critical Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ as part of the Master of Environment. He has also been a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and is currently co-Director of the Simplicity Institute.

Alexander’s interdisciplinary research focuses on degrowth, permaculture, voluntary simplicity, ‘grassroots’ theories of transition, and the relationship between culture and political economy. His current research is exploring the aesthetics of degrowth and energy descent futures.

His books include Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary (2019, co-authored with Brendan Gleeson); Carbon Civilisation and the Energy Descent Future (2018, co-authored with Josh Floyd); Art Against Empire: Toward an Aesthetics of Degrowth (2017); Just Enough is Plenty: Thoreau’s Alternative Economics (2016); Deface the Currency: The Lost Dialogues of Diogenes (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); he is also 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). In 2016 he also released a documentary called A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity, co-produced with Jordan Osmond of Happen Films. Alexander blogs at www.simplicitycollective.com.