What type of community do I want to study, and how? What have I learned so far?
Reading about various intentional communities in Virginia with Maureen has made me reflect a lot on what I value about the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition. Our coalition has a consciousness around creating a space that challenges the prevailing social norms of individualism and competition. Not just for fun and unity, this is a deeply challenging political endeavor. There’s a lot of pain and difficulty that comes with unlearning and relearning the way we relate to one another. Members must constantly strive for honesty, harmony, and self-improvement.
I think that in many ways, most if not all intentional communities are undertaking this sort of work. I would like to study a group that is conscious of the political nature of such a task and shapes their decisions and structure around it. Maureen and I also discussed possibly studying an urban group, since we are less familiar with how these might function. We definitely want to study a community that we can visit here in Virginia.
When we decide on a community to study, one thing I would like to look at is the group’s conflict resolution structure. This work seems really important in such constant group spaces, and I can probably learn a lot from how seasoned community members handle and process day-to-day conflict.