A Network of Clusters

by Raven

Okay.  Now for something completely different.

The FEC (Federation of Egalitarian Communities) is in trouble.  The FIC (Foundation for Intentional Communities) seems to be doing well but is busy trying to be all things for all kinds of communities.  There are certain people craving something bigger than the FEC but smaller than the FIC.  I’ve heard that there is at least one plan for a new organization in the works.

One of the things I’ve found most interesting that’s developed over the last twenty, thirty years is local groupings of communities, what I once referred to as “Communities of Communities” and more recently as “Clusters”.  The large and ever-changing ecosystem of communities in Louisa County, Virginia is one example.  The tri-communities of Rutledge, Missouri, Sandhill Farm, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and Red Earth Farms (which also might include other communities in Northeast Missouri–sometimes referred to as the NEMO communities) would be another.  A third are the queer communities in Tennessee, a bit publicity shy, but I think there are at least three of them near each other.  I also wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there is a small network of communities in the Bay Area of California–or that there may be other groupings emerging elsewhere out of the post-pandemic mutual aid networks.

I am starting to think about something that probably wouldn’t really be a viable option for maybe a decade but might be interesting to build toward now.  If these community clusters could become more solid, I’m wondering about the possibility of creating an organization that could connect the clusters.  This would be a whole ‘nother level up from the FEC, FIC, and various organizations of co-ops, cohousing, and ecovillages.  It would be a network of clusters of communities of people. This would be nested, the way that cities and towns are nested in counties and counties are nested in states.  It could be quite large while still being able to be very decentralized.

And talk about sharing.  First of all, this could include a bunch of income-sharing communities.  The Louisa cluster already has a lot, including Twin Oaks, Acorn, and Living Energy Farm.  Sandhill, in Rutledge, used to be income-sharing and my understanding is that Red Earth Farms there might include some income-sharing homesteads.  Also, I have heard that some of the Tennessee queer communities practice some things that are similar to income-sharing.

But also, each of these clusters practices sharing between communities–and I have been intrigued by learning about different intercommunal sharing practices.  And this could bump it up another level.  One of the main things that the FEC did was to facilitate intercommunal travel and labor exchange (“LEXing”).  A network of clusters could figure out how to travel and share between clusters.

While this idea is not exactly about income-sharing communities, it’s really about how to practice sharing and mutual aid on a larger scale.  Again, while I don’t see a network like this appearing anytime soon, I’m hoping that this is something that community activists will think about and put on their radar screen.  I think this is an important intermediate step between community building and larger societal change.  Although it very well may not ever happen, I think that it’s definitely worth considering.