Page 8 - C.A.L.L. #26 - Winter 2005/2006

Ecovillages, A Practical
Guide to Sustainable The Farm in Tennessee

Communities BOOK REVIEW and community change
Jan Martin Bang
Jan Martin Bang reflects upon a visit
Floris Books to The Farm in the summer of 2004

In Ecovillages, A Practical Guide to Sustainable Nearly ten years ago I had been
Communities, Jan Bang sets out to give a practical guide on the invited to The Farm to participate in
considerations and implementation of creating an ecovillage and a a Basic Design Course in
more sustainable life. The first section of the book gives a history of Permaculture. I was then a member
the Global Ecovillage Network, background about the book’s history
and Bang’s personal journey to ecovillage living. This section also of Kibbutz Gezer in Israel, and this
explains permaculture as a way of designing sustainable human invitation formed part of a larger
settlements by means of looking for patterns in our natural world. plan, conceived and funded by The
Global Ecovillage Network, to try and
Bang does a good job in giving an introduction as to what it takes to incorporate the environmentalists of
design an ecovillage. For someone who has little background in the the Kibbutz Movement into the
concepts and technology that Bang refers to, this is a great book. It Network. My world in Israel
explores many new ideas and helps guide the reader in how to consisted of attempting to persuade
proceed in more depth on many different elements of ecovillage the otherwise straight kibbutz
planning. An example of this is his discussion of the different types of authorities, and other official bodies
available energy sources and some of their pros and cons. However, if in Israel, to take on board an
a person was getting ready to invest in sustainable energy, I believe
that they would need to do a lot more research about how to actually ecological agenda.
go about setting up wind towers or solar panels. For the more
advanced reader with existing knowledge in the latest ecofriendly The first evening of that course we
technology, Bang probably does not reveal much new information in participants gathered in a large circle
any one area. and were ushered in to the
Ecovillage Training Centre at The
What Bang does do wonderfully is give a comprehensive overview of Farm through an arch of green
all elements that need to be considered when designing an ecovillage. branches, chanting native American
This is especially evident when he goes into detail about the songs, and having sage smoke
communities people are setting up, and the relationships people wafted upon us with a fan of eagle
should be striving for when creating such communities. Bang feathers. I thought it was great, but I
succeeds in showing how an ecovillage is more then just how people
relate to the environment but also how they relate to one another. knew I was going to have trouble if I
did this with the guys in suits back
Throughout the book Bang emphasizes the importance of planning the home!
design of the ecovillage; he stresses knowing the community - the Nearly a decade later I’m back at
importance of truly looking at the people you are going to be living and The Farm, at the Ecovillage Training
designing with. This will enable you to take full advantage of Centre. This time I come as a guest,
everyone’s strengths. He also goes into great detail about surveying
the area on which you plan to build, so as to fully recognize what
resources there are to be utilized. I believe that this aspect of the book
helps the reader focus on how all of these elements relate to our lives.
I believe this is what gives this book a great quality.

One of the more unique elements of this book is that throughout the
different chapters there are examples of existing communities. Bang
focuses his commentary on the various communities as they relate to
the particular sections of the book so as to add to the theoretical
discussion and make it more meaningful. This makes the book much
more hands on.

Overall I believe this book has a lot of information and is a great
beginner’s guide to thinking about the way in which we all live our lives
in relation to the people and environment around us.

Danya Shapiro
Kvutsat Zeeq, Haifa, Israel
deshapiro@hotmail.com

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