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Community Living

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I have a question for every one who reads this blog. Does living in a community have a huge future?

When most people think of living in a community they usually think of people with a specific belief (fanatics), living more or less detached from the world, sharing everything, no privacy, living a life of low economic standard, sharing everything but their underwear. More or less traditional communities still exist and will keep existing more or less in the same way. The benefits that I see for living in such a community are:

Sharing with others, the connection and the love that is felt when sharing is a huge stimulant;
People are social beings, they need at home, others to be with;
Cooperation in the economic sense.

The sharing, the social contact, the practice of specific beliefs is a very strong desire and wish for many people. People feel detached, alone in their homes (the singles market has never been bigger). At the same time we are making more money that we can spend on an individual apartment, all the stuff you need, etc. Most of us don’t believe that it is possible to combine a modern, independent life with the life in a community. But I believe that there is huge potential.

Imagine 40 people (people with similar demographics: example young, working people between 25 and 35 years old) living in a complex, located in or at the edge of a decent sized city, that offers individual suites/lofts to the residents. Each person has a room that combines bed, living room and small kitchen (fridge, sink, microwave), plus everybody has their own bathroom. The complex offers shared services: communal kitchen were meals are prepared by a cook/made, communal dining room, a pool and or tennis court (that can also be used for other sports), sun deck, laundry service, garage, storage, extra rooms for visitors (have to be guests of people living there), a room for events, etc. This way busy people can spend less time (or none if desired) going to the supermarket, cooking, doing their laundry and cleaning and therefore can spend more time living: enjoying the company of all the people around them in the public spaces. And because of economies of scale (the sharing of facilities) it becomes very accessible in price. Think of the following benefits/things that you can save on:

Don’t need a spare room for that one person a month that wants to stay over. You share the guest rooms, you can reserve it when you know someone comes over;
Time saver: cleaning, cooking, buying groceries;
Money saver: good cleaning equipment, washing machine, dishwasher, etc.;
Money saver: you can negotiate good prices for internet, (cell) phone, grocery delivery (whole sale) and other services as you will buy them as a
Money saver: share the kitchen (equipment) and living room. Most people have a full kitchen in case they want to cook, but that rarely happens;
Money saver: sundeck, sports field (tennis court), pool, small cinema or TV room and all the rest is just too expensive to have on your own. And it’s useless as you don’t use it enough on your own;
Being close to other, like minded people who like each others company. But at the same time you have the privacy of your home where you can retreat and do anything you want.

Of course people will have to give something in return. It asks above average understanding, respect for others and some flexibility. But the rewards are big and I believe that if organized well it offers people a great way to live.

I would like to live this way, would you? And so once again my question: Does living in a community have a huge future?

posted by Luca Merlini on 8/10/2007 11:29 am | COMMENTS (4)

Comments (4)

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posted by Abida on 7/ 7/2008 8:37 pm

I live in a urban community in a big city in Canada. We are 4 people in the household that has an extended family of many souls. We have an open house policy. that is there are no locks, no keys, no barriers. We provide a livng quarter for any one in need that are not in drugs/or alcohool. There are plenty of help for people that are destitute, but not enough help to people that for a short period of time need to have help to keep them afloat until the waters of life turns in what they need. After 3 month we reevaluate the situation and with exception of one case, most people leave to their own home after 3-4 month. Then it is up to them to re-create or regenerate a community I am sad to say it doesn't happen because of the fear/greed/factor. The core of the community work and study. We have a garden, a believe in God and the certainty and real proove that no act of kindness goes unnoticed by the creator. We have started this in many other cities were some of us lived. Until we came to this big Canadian city and saw that this open house policy is needed. So people come, feel secure. Get their material, health, emotional state, or whatever togethr and off they go to live their lives. On less unhappy person on the planet. At the same time we also support the Collateral Repair Project see:

www.collateralrepairproject.org/menu.html

please get ten people and place 20 bucks each and support this project. There are millions of refugees on Syria and Jordan.

Also we support the :

vcnv.org Kathy Kelly the coordinator writes for Counterpunch (www.counterpunch.com). See:

www.counterpunch.org/kelly08232007.html

We send money to support one family of 8. We also are very involved in spirituality and we believe that what we do is to plant a seed of solidarity and generosity in everything we do. We are all workers and students, as I mentioned before. We eat organic food, have no television. Have computer for reason of work and study. We believe we have a responsibility for mother earth and all its inhabitants. We support SEPED an organization that helps to bring free trade coffee, sugar, cocoa, coconut oil, from Guatemala and the Philipines into Canada and sell it and give the campesinos an incredible deal, compared with the rest of so called free traders. The only other group that really provide the same type of return is Capulin Coffee

www.capulincoffee.com/orderpage.htm

So know there are plenty of projects that can be done when you live in community.

We support Native American spiritual cerimonies and are very familiar with many struggles.

We worked with Shundahai network see: www.shundahai.org

and Nanish Shontie see: www.nanish.org

We are also members of the Sanctuary in Grand forks; See

www.openminder.com/sanctuary/index.html

Remember that we all have full time jobs and are doing PHDs and Master program. How can we achieve so much? CO_OPERATIONN, spirituality and focus on the :

We are one, all humanity are one. What affects the earth affects the people of the earth. There is no separation we are one with the universe.

We know that the people in the community come to expect us to be there. We organize working parties for mothers/parents that just had babies and we help out with cleaning their homes and cook for them. We help people that are having problems with bureaucracies and have wonderful parties.

We strong believe that it is important to send a beacon of light back into all the hearts of humanity by maintaining an open heart, open mind and open laugh.

It is not difficult to leave in community when you leave the fear factor out of the plate. Trust the inate ability of our genetic make up to co-opearate.

the only reason co-operation is not fostered is because we use much more resources when we live individual lives and we spend more money and all in order to maitain the greed economy we seem to cherish.

So go experiment everyone. Life is great. Trust your genes. Trust the Creator will provide. Walk with your heart in your hands. No one will suffer and there will be smiles, challenges and incredible discovery all around.

Peace. We need more communities!

posted by anarandan on 8/28/2007 11:31 pm

Yes, I think of a "community" and I stray into "commune," bringing to mind all of the ways and times I've read about communes failing, which most things I've read say they mostly do.

Your idea is beautiful, though for such a thing to exist, I think you need one more thing: the necessity for a community to exist. Questioning the future of communities implies of course that they are already threatened - a community won't exist unless it has to, because that is exactly what it is. Economic co-operation and sharing lives isn't something that can exist unless it's needed for some greater goal. I don't see co-habitation as a true community. A community exists *for* something.

Daniel Quine, one of my favorite writers, puts it succinctly in his book, "Beyond Civilization", using the words "tribe" to mean about the same thing as "community" : "Tribes exist for their members - for all their members, becasue all are perceived as involved in the success of the tribe... the tribe is what provides them with what they need, and if the tribe is gone, they're all out of luck."

So, I think that communities may exist into the future, if they can exist in a context where the people in them are *dependant* on it. I.E. the people in your example not only sharing a cook, etc, but all of the people in it working for the building, teaching others to cook, growing those groceries, etc. Communities are made of people who need each other, not who simply tolerate each other.

posted by Mtempest on 8/22/2007 12:46 am

That's an interesting question. Whenever I think of communal living I have the same perception: living in a house far away from people, having no need to leave, existing on communal gardens and shared work.

However, the way you describe it, it sounds like an excellent idea...much more modern. It even sounds like something that could be brought into large cities. Your idea allows just enough space to feel like you can always retreat to privacy once in a while when you feel the need for isolation.

However, I wonder how such a plan would exist. What would happen if someone were not doing his or her fair share of the work? Would they be kicked out? Or would there even be any bad seeds? Would people automatically feel the need to contribute when they see that life is much better when you have people around to help?

posted by katiek on 8/10/2007 1:29 pm