Grass-Roof Homes as Grassroots Hubs: Intentional Communities on the Frontlines of Sustainability Policy in the U.S. and Canada, Jasper Lydon, UG '24 (857A4A4F)
Amid America’s growing social and environmental sustainability crisis, this thesis brings a new possibility to policymakers. Collective residential cooperatives, commonly called Intentional Communities, promote more sustainable lifestyles on the margins of society. This thesis argues that policymakers can learn from and work with intentional communities to promote the lifestyle changes that are necessary to address the climate change crisis. While researchers increasingly see community-led initiatives as a promising avenue for promoting social change, intentional communities have been largely overlooked. This thesis may be the first-ever policy study of American intentional communities. It uses 44 oral history style interviews of intentional community residents, as well as ethnographic notes from visits to 15 different intentional communities across the U.S. and parts of Canada. From these interviews, I develop a series of policy recommendations to enable intentional communities to work more effectively. These suggestions include alleviating zoning and building code restrictions, as well as providing selective incentives towards beneficial intentional communities. This research offers a radical new mechanism for policymakers to support community-led initiatives for social and environmental sustainability at a time when they are needed most.