Page 14 - Bulletin #67 - November 2020
P. 14
How have intentional communities fared
through the pandemic?
Posted on July 8, 2020 by Cynthia Tina
- 1 Comment
New research shows how intentional communities have responded to the coronavirus
crisis.
With people’s lives upended across the globe, we can’t help but wonder, how would we have
responded to the coronavirus crisis if we all lived in intentional communities — ecovillages,
cohousing and the like — instead of our conventional neighborhoods?
And how have existing intentional communities fared through the pandemic? Are they 14
better off or worse than the mainstream? What can we learn from how they have dealt
with this crisis?
Maybe intentional communities are more financially or materially self-sufficient and therefore
more resilient during a pandemic. Perhaps their highly communal living arrangements make them
more susceptible to the disease. Could they be suffering less from loneliness and isolation during
lockdown? Are they more stable and even generous during this time?
To find out the answers, the Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC) partnered with
the Intentional Communities Desk in May 2020 and sent out a survey to intentional communities
in our Communities Directory so we could learn how they have responded to the pandemic.
Of the 75 intentional communities that responded to the survey 68% are based in the United
States, with others spread out from the UK to Peru and all the way to Australia and New Zealand.
The stories these communities share are fascinating. With some rural communities basically
unaffected or even experiencing positive changes since coronavirus, and other more urban
communities especially challenged to step up together and support each other through crisis.
Communities have had to come up with creative ways to keep each other safe and to stay
connected even while typical community activities, such as shared meals, are on pause. They have
had to navigate internal tensions about how seriously to take the virus and what levels of
response are appropriate.
