By Joan McVilly More than ever I’m questioning the whole project of “intentional community.” What is the purpose? Maybe this is why I felt free to walk away from my community despite what I knew could be the consequence. Was I a lynch pin that now sees that community...
Communities #186 Spring 2020 Note: You can order a copy of this issue here. Following up on our Passing the Torch theme, our new issue highlights cases where intentional communities experience not so much generational shift as total or near-total collapse or...
By Marianne Wright June 2020 marks the centenary of the Bruderhof, a Christian communal movement that today is home to around 3000 people of many nationalities living on 26 communities in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Australia, Paraguay, and...
By Chris Roth I was part of several groups in which the generational torch was not so much “passed” as “seized.” Circumstances, motives, strategies, and outcomes varied, but in each instance this process of torch-passing-under-duress involved both collateral damage...
By Jen and Hilary Bayer We’re 20-year-old twins born and raised in Magic, a residential service learning community. As we’ve grown older we’ve wondered increasingly about futures we might shape here and elsewhere. Today about 20 Magic residents ranging in age from 15...
By Tim Miller The question of generational transition in American communities is inescapably related to one enduring puzzle: although most communities are intended to be permanent institutions, their lifespans in a great many cases aren’t very long. Over and over,...
