Page 7 - C.A.L.L. #29 - Winter 2007

ICSA – A Synthesis of Community

Living Practice and Academia

It was an honor and a challenge for me to be elected president for ICSA (International Communal
Studies Association). ICSA has gone a long way since its establishment in 1985 at a conference held
in Yad Tabenkin, Israel. Today there is a growing need for an association such as ICSA which
combines the various threads of the broad range of intentional communities with ongoing
research. Therefore, the main challenge of ICSA in the coming years, as I see it, is to follow practice
with academic studies. In order to do this there must be a large network of researchers and
practitioners who, by working together, produce insight on intentional communities. This network
of people should analyze processes and needs within and surrounding intentional communities for
further learning and application.

Last June, at the very successful ICSA conference in Damanhur, it was decided that the next ICSA
conference will be held in Israel for the following reasons:

a) 2010 will mark 100 years since Degania, the first kibbutz, was established.

b) Recent changes, in the
traditional rural kibbutzim and
the development of a range of
urban kibbutzim mean that there
is a great deal for non-Israeli
scholars to see and experience.

c) The endorsement of the Institute for Research of the Kibbutz and the Co-operative Idea at the
University of Haifa, as well as other academic bodies in Israel means that ICSA should have a good
reception.

I hope that the next ICSA conferences will continue to have both an academic track and a practical
community track because the meetings and the exchange of ideas between these two groups
benefit both.

What will be in the next conference? A few preliminary suggestions have already been sent to me
but a decision will be made by the conference committee. Any additional ideas are welcome and
will be considered.

Some of the suggestions for themes for the next conference that I have received are:

a. Challenges confronting the communal life in the Globalizing world.

b. Learning from the ecological intentional communities.

c. Learning from the intentional communities of the Far East.

d. The contribution intentional communities can make to peace and the reduction of violence.

e. Architecture as a representation of the development of intentional communities.

I hope to see as many of you as possible at the coming conference.

Professor Michal Palgi
ICSA President

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