Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing -- a tool or an environment?

[Michael Mariner (mykano]

Raines Cohen said:

>If we think of cohousing as a lever, we can use it to amplify the power 
>of other things we're trying to do, whether that is to save open space, 
>change land-use attitudes, revitalize urban areas, or open minds. 
>Different people will use this tool for different goals, sometimes in 
>opposition to one another.

Long-time list members will probably remember that I'm one of the more 
flagrant idealists who believes that cohesive neighborhoods can become 
the building blocks of a new society -- one that is accountable, 
cooperative, supportive and a lot kinder an gentler than what we have 
now.  That's over several generations -- not tomorrow or the next day.  
That evolution is what I'm writing my book about.

I feel Raines' description of cohousing as a "tool" is inadequate because 
a cohousing community is an entire environment where many things can and 
do happen.  If we look at only one or two effects a coho community has, 
then we might think of it as a lever or a hammer or something.  But so 
much more is going on in the wide variety of personal interactions that 
happen everyday. And, many of us foresee this as only the beginning -- 
that society can be decentralized  down to the neighborhood level.  Think 
of a time when cohousing-like neigborhoods become the rule rather than 
the exception!  Associations or networks of neighborhoods could make the 
precinct a meaningful level of government, education and economics.

Mike Mariner


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San Juan Cohousing near Durango, CO, where we're looking for a few more 
good folks.  Check us out at http://www.rmi.net/~ganesh

                      KEY COMMUNITY RESOURCES:

                     Cohousing:  http://www.cohousing.org/
                   Ecovillages:  http://www.gaia.org/
       Intentional Communities:  http://www.ic.org/
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