Communities — Experiments with Social Change

Two-thirds of the book Communities: Experiments with Social Change have been written, and today, I would like to share more about this upcoming book. The idea to write a book about this topic arose three years ago, when I was living in a community in the Netherlands. Today, the community no longer exists. It began with beautiful intentions and positive energy, but it was difficult to sustain the formulated economic model. Simply put, we ran into financial trouble. As money became scarce, fear entered the community's energy field, resulting in far-reaching consequences. Initial dreams, intentions, and a functioning community structure eroded from within. When people are afraid, they often return to pre-established scripts. These scripts led the community to separateness, fear, suspicion, assumptions, projections, and unrealistic expectations. All the initial trust, cooperation, and open and honest communication disappeared. How could this have been prevented?

This question led me to abandon ship and embark on a journey to find an answer. I visited communities in Sweden, Germany, Brazil, and Portugal in search of an answer. The experiences from this trip culminate in the book I am currently writing.

In this article, I will discuss this upcoming book in more detail, focusing on how we can create successful, flourishing communities.

In the book, I distinguish between several levels of everyday community social reality. These levels are:

• The individual level

• The interpersonal level

• Communities as ecosystems within ecosystems

• Networks of communities

In my opinion a resilient community can only exist when all these levels are taken into consideration. In the next paragraphs I will shortly explain all the four levels of community.

'Never stop loving'. A slogan written down near the community where I live in Portugal. Relational culture and autonomy are for me a way to express love for life and this beautiful planet.

The individual level

At the individual level, I primarily draw on my experience as a counselor. I have found that communities are made up of individuals who mainly come from individualistic societies. Simply put, we haven't been socialized to live in communities. I often hear people say, "I want to be around people in a community and in nature." However, most of us have not been taught how to do so. Our current societies have made us into separate units. Communities require wholeness instead of separateness. This means different styles of relating, communicating, and cooperating. In my chapter on the individual level, I share my experiences and explain what this could look like. The center of it all is emotional intelligence. I define emotional intelligence as a combination of curiosity, courage, critical thinking, emotional awareness, and a desire for personal growth. As we engage in the search to become authentic individuals, we gradually evolve into autonomous beings. Communities need a certain level of emotional intelligence and authenticity from their members to function. This can prevent the return to old, divisive behavior patterns in times of conflict or stress. Individuals who take responsibility for themselves and can reflect on their role in conflicts and stressful situations are more likely to offer valuable solutions to a community in crisis than to return to old scripts.

Communities require wholeness instead of separateness.

One way to develop emotional intelligence is to be able to deconstruct old narratives. Narratives are a central focus of my work. Every culture is, in a sense, a set of narratives that we tell ourselves and each other. Current narratives about patriarchy, capitalism, and individualism do not help communities function well. Therefore, they must be dismantled step by step. As we deconstruct old narratives, new ones can emerge. In communities with emotionally intelligent people, these new narratives often focus on trust, cooperation, interdependency, gratitude, and reciprocity. These values are exactly what make communities work.

Communities need a certain level of emotional intelligence and authenticity. This can prevent the return to old scripts.

The interpersonal level

On the interpersonal level, I draw on my experience as an anthropologist and as a facilitator of group processes. I have been doing this work for years in various contexts. One aspect of this level is the group dynamics that play out in everyday community life. I believe that emotionally intelligent, autonomous human beings working and living together create a certain kind of collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is greater than the sum of its parts and leads to healthy decision-making. For instance, neuroscientists have discovered that a kind of "meta-brain" emerges when two or more people converse. This "meta-brain" is greater than the sum of its parts. To me, this is what collective intelligence is. Communities become more resilient, intelligent, and creative when they start operating as a whole.

Another element of the interpersonal level is relational culture. Relational culture is the opposite of our individualist society. It is related to the separateness and wholeness story I mentioned earlier. In an individualist society, we are, in a sense, alone and responsible for our own well-being. In relational cultures, the community is responsible for everyone's well-being. In my book, I argue that this way of living together is closer to our essence as a social species. We are made for cooperation, mutual trust, and helping one another when needed. We are wired this way. This does not mean people depend on a system, such as our healthcare system. In relational cultures, people become autonomous beings capable of taking responsibility for themselves and others. Therefore, help doesn't create dependency; it supports the development of skills, inner trust, autonomy, and inner growth in its members.

Communities as ecosystems within ecosystems

At this level, I primarily draw on my life experiences as a nature lover, observer, and gardener. My basic hypothesis is that "we are nature." For centuries, we have upheld a distinction between humans and nature, enabling us to see nature merely as a resource to be utilized. The "we are nature" paradigm shifts this perspective, making us part of this world and its existing ecosystems. In return, nature gives us meaning, a deep sense of belonging, play, and creativity, according to my experiences with actual relational cultures, such as the Yawanawa tribe that I visited three years ago and who live deep in the Amazon rainforest.

On this level, I combine two sublevels: communities as ecosystems and communities within ecosystems. To me, the two are inseparable. Communities as ecosystems are communities that form a whole greater than the sum of their parts. The nature of these communities is based on shared relational cultures in which autonomy is valued. Each living being plays a role in a natural ecosystem. For example, trees provide shade and attract rain. They also provide organic matter, and fungi transform dead organic matter into healthy soil. These organisms form huge networks that redistribute nourishment and information to the entire ecosystem. Communities as ecosystems are based on the same principles. Every member has a specific function in a community. This function is not based on a rigid distribution of tasks, but rather on autonomous beings taking care of the whole. A community that operates as an ecosystem is more resilient to change and crises. Just as a healthy natural ecosystem can withstand wildfires and droughts, a community operating as an ecosystem can withstand change and crises.

If we take good care of our natural world, nature will take care of us.

To me, we are inseparable from the natural world in which we live. Even urban communities are connected to the more-than-human world. This insight stems from the idea that we are nature, not separate from it. For me, communities as ecosystems within ecosystems is the extension of humans to their place in wider ecosystems. This concept is also related to stewardship. We should be stewards of the natural world around us. Ecosystems provide us with food, meaning, and opportunities for cooperation rather than exploitation. This idea is deeply ingrained in tribal societies. However, queer ecology also plays an important role in this kind of thinking and experience. Queer ecology brings the value of diversity into human-made systems, aligning itself with what happens in more-than-human ecosystems, where diversity contributes to a system's resilience. Like relational cultures, ecosystems are about connection and embeddedness, and we can be part of them. Life sustains life, meaning that if we take good care of our more-than-human world, nature will take care of us.

Networks of communities

On this level, I operate using systems thinking. I have always been able to see the "bigger picture" and think in systems. For me, systems thinking is about creating coherence, even when life is pretty chaotic and complex. It moves to meta-levels of seeing the world as it is and as it could be. I also see myself as an agent of social change. Thus, I have a deep desire to contribute to systems that support us rather than divide us from each other and from the world. We all know that the current systems do not help us.

In my opinion, networks of communities could be the solution to a world plagued by war, violence, exclusion, and exploitation. When communities operate as ecosystems within wider ecosystems and cooperate with each other, they can provide a strong alternative to our current world systems. In my experience, this is something that could emerge in the near future. It seems to be the logical consequence of the evolution of communities. When communities cooperate on local, regional, national, and global levels, they can share experiences, skills, and insights, which contributes to the well-being of each community. Together, they can offer a powerful alternative to the current systems of exclusion and violence. This idea is not entirely futuristic. For example, I was involved in the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) for a while, an initiative of ecovillages that promotes cooperation and knowledge sharing. Such initiatives already exist, and I would like to see them grow over time.

There is more and more evidence that our ancestors lived in societies based on relationships.

These four levels form the backbone of my book, Communities: Experiments with Social Change. The book is based mainly on experiences but is also backed up by theories such as queer ecology, deep ecology, anthropology, and archeology. My proposal is not new in the sense that it comes out of nowhere. There is more and more evidence that our ancestors lived in societies based on relationships rather than individualism and fragmentation. A multitude of indigenous voices speak to us about reciprocity, interdependency, and the Earth as our meaningful home. This is good news. I am not alone in this belief. I hope that we are heading towards a more sustainable and enjoyable future. A future where we relate to each other from a place of autonomy and strength. A future where we can enjoy authentic relationships that foster creativity and purpose.

Communities are experiments. Some fail, some flourish, but each one teaches us something about how humans can live together in a time of global crisis. This book is my attempt to bring together these lessons — from lived experience, from theory, and from the many communities I encountered on my journey.

Wende