Introduction and file model

Walking towards utopia

travelling by communities and ecovillages

Introduction and file model

All the communities in this website have several characteristics in common (except other piece of information). To avoid repeat them in each file and to give a general panorama, these are:

• The internal organization isn´t hierarchical, that is to say, there aren´t chiefs or bosses. The highest organ to decide is the assembly, where all the members have the same speaking and “voting” right.
• Decision-making is by consensus of all members at periodical meetings. According to each community, voting is rejected or it´s used as a last and unwishable resort.
• The way to do agriculture/farming (and cattle raising in tis case) is organic. It means to get maximum quality food preseving the fertility of the soil and respecting the environment, through the best use of natural resources and without using synthetic chemical products neither genetic modified organisms (GMO).
• They have a system, more or less established, to welcome volunteers. It involves to offer lodge, food and participation into the cmmunity life in exchange of work about 30-40 hours a week. The tasks can be mainly gardening and farming, or also domestic and maintenance tasks, for example.

The information in the files is made basically with my own texts. If a community has a website in English, I write mainly about my personal impressions, although I also include a very short resume of the general information (if you want, you can read more in their website).

The files don´t try to be exhaustive, but to give a general idea with more or less information. The omission of some piece of information doesn´t mean anything definite.

The terms “community” and “ecovillage” (as you can read in their respective articles) can be some ambiguous, so all the places could not be labeled thus. In fact, it is easier to me to describe them as communities (permanent human group with a greater degree of things in common than in the conventional society) than as ecovillages. Even so, I also include some place that is not community or ecovillage, but I consider interesting to spread too.

FILE MODEL

• Name of the community

• Website, e-mail or postal address (if it has website, the file is briefer and I only give you a general idea)
• Phone: example +33 (0) 12345555 / 12347777
+33: internacional code (from Spain means to mark 0033)
(0): code to use inside the country, not from outside
12345555 / 12347777: particular number(s)

• Date and origins of foundation
• Number of permanent residents (in addition, it can have short or long term volunteers)
• Legal structure
• Property, rent, squattered...
• Approximated geographic location
• Description of the surroundings

• Objectives / principles
• Main activities and sources of income
• Remarkable characteristics (i.e. renewable energies and treatment of residues)

• Notes on cultivated products
• Present non-human animals
• Spoken languages (indicating if somebody in concrete speaks some language of the Iberian Peninsula)
• Phone or internet access
• Type of diet

• Social movements or networks with which they are related to

• More specific personal impressions

• Nearest stop of public transport (indication of the line and distance to the community in case of being to several kms)

• Date and duration of my stay

• WWOOF member? Included in Eurotopia?

• Link to photos