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If I were to draw the topic ecovillages out of a research project idea box, to illustrate the concept in ultimate practice I would create a diorama demonstrating it through the parallel universe of online social networking. I’d craft Facebook communities into representations of ecovillages, pasting the decapitated heads of People magazine celebrities onto Popsicle sticks to embody all of the players. Everything would be presented on the weave of a map, evincing the connection of communities and all of the individuals involved.

A movement toward environmental utopia might seem incredibly disparate to an online social networking engine, but the perfect analogy lies in their similar webs of intentional community. Just as ecovillages emerge through its members’ choice to share a common bond (in their case, the goal of living sustainably and harmoniously within and across communities on earth) so too do Facebook networks evolve through a mutuallyminded fusion (in their case, through sharing experiences in approximately four hundred characters or less updates within a virtual world).

Ecovillage, a sense of community

Now imagine all of the existing Facebook communities were able to subsist as freestanding entities and, yet, gel together, in the end, as more than the sum of their parts. While all ecovillages are guided by common goals, they all look a little different in how they seek attainment of them. Some practice communal living, sharing and producing income through onsite work, like through cottage industry at the New Talavan Community of Mississippi. Others, such as the Los Angeles Eco-Village, do not share income and maintain much paid work off-site. Though, according to Lois Arkin, LAEV Executive Director, ecovillages such as theirs are breeding grounds for business networking and, in fact, many small businesses have formed in their ecovillage thanks to the sense of community of its members.

Not your parents’ hippie commune
Ecovillages are direct descendants of the free lovin’ sixties when the sharing of resources within community living was not just a utopian quest for perfect existential, environmental, and social harmony but also the pragmatic choice. But, the ideal of living in perfect harmony within one’s community and environment has existed across time. Way back in the sixteenth century when Sir Thomas More coined the term utopia in his fictionalized account, he gave a satirical nod to its practical unfeasibility in giving it a Greek name meaning “not a place.” Still, his descriptions of and the continued connotation to the term utopia is that it sure would be a great place to live – even if it may be impossible in application. To prove so, consider the idea of sharing common space and resources, living without hierarchy, and committing to consensus decision-making with all of your facebook friends. Does that sound like a recipe for harmony?

”Human Scale” friendship tops at 1,000 or 150?
Ecovillages are not completely bound by an absolute bible of standards, but they do typically abide by the definition set forth by Robert Gilman, an astrophysicist turned environmental anthropologist who, along with his wife, was integral in the ecovillage movement of the nineties. According to his definition, an ecovillage is of “human scale” with a “full-featured settlement in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.”

The “human scale” part of the definition is particularly demonstrative of the parallel between ecovillages and facebook communities. According to Gilman, an ecovillage can only be so large as to ensure that all participants feel they know each other. This number typically taps out at one thousand, but, according to Dunbar’s number, one of the most popular theories of social cognitive limits, one hundred and fifty may be the approximate magical number. This same rule applies to the psychology of facebook clans: they only work if you can recognize and feel some form of comraderie with all of your friends.

Ecovillages vs. facebook communities
The “full-featured settlement” can apply as equally to an ecovillage as it can to a facebook community, as well. In the world of facebook, one can farm some local food, work alongside fellow friends as a Mafioso, and even trade in close-by commerce. You’ve got it all right at your fingertips. No need to venture away from home to participate in the daily rites of modern living.

The rest of Gilman’s definition is not so literally transferable in comparing ecovillages to facebook communities, but the allegory still exists in explaining how an ecovillage can be successfully constructed. According to Gilman, the goal should be to harmlessly integrate our human living into nature in such a way as to do so forever and in support of a healthful humanity. So, maybe it’d be hard to imagine getting along with all of your facebook friends day in and day out in close proximity, but there could definitely be a compromise there. Like, say, starting out as a simple co-housing unit. Working together to treat the earth more kindly. Sharing in goals like recycling more and wasting less.

Environmentally greater good choices
Some hardcore ecovillages may be able to completely self-sustain off the land on which their community sits through such measures as solar heated shower water and full-fledged farming. Others may rely on some outside help from, say, the electric company to keep things moving. There are those communities which were crafted from the bottom up to incorporate every environmentally sound choice available and others which stemmed from retrofitted neighborhoods that were recreated to mold to ecovillage principles.

However they got their start, ecovillages across the globe share the overriding goal of creating community in quest for a greater good. This principle is totally achievable for any one of us. So, maybe the average facebook user will never enlist their online extended families to seek environmental salvation, but perhaps the subtle suggestion of occasional small steps toward better living could extend to the strata of overlapping communities. One group brings up the value in composting. Another extends a garden share to friends who live nearby in the real world. It’s not exactly an ecovillage, but it’s a start.