Academic Communitarian
From: allenbutcher (allenbutcherjuno.com)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 11:28:11 -0700 (MST)
Anyone familiar with this fellow and his work?  My quick search of the
web 
did not turn up anything but there seem to be lots of Michael Cummings's

Fred

>   "The general public has the impression they all died out in the    
>   1960s," says Michael Cummings, a University of Colorado, Denver,
>   political scientist who has studied communes for 17 years. In fact,
>   Cummings estimates, there are now tens of thousands of "intentional
>   communities"--groups of people who reject conventional neighborhoods
>   and live with others who share their values or interests.    

I know 'em.  He writes fairly regularly for Communities magazine, and
attends conferences of the Communal Societies Association, Society for
Utopian Studies, International Communal Societies Association and other
academic communitarian organizations.  Look up these organizations on the
 www.ic.org  Web site, I think they're there, otherwise I'm sure they are
in the Communities Directories, and they may have their own Web sites.

Michael Cummings does not live in a community.  He is an example of your
classic "academic communitarian."  Not that that is a slam, it is good to
have such 'non-biased' supporters.  I don't know how he does it, but he
manages to get his name and quotes in a lot of pieces about community
like this.  Must be those academic networks.

I haven't found him to be helpful in creating a cohousing community in
Denver, nor in supporting a regional association of communities.  He has
a reputation of not answering his mail or returning phone calls to people
other than to those with whom he wants to communicate.  For example, he
invited me to Denver to enroll in his masters program in political
science, but when I switched to a computer information program, he was no
longer available.  He accepted information on communities and cohousing I
sent to him, but never responded or reciprocated.  I have heard similar
criticisms from others, so I have reason to believe that it is not just
me.  

To be charitable, I'll say that he must be very busy.  He is really a
great guy, and he and evidently his wife, are very much into community,
they just seem to have a comfortable life keeping that academic distance
from his subjects of study.

Still, if you want an informed and sympathetic academician to quote for
your article, or book or whatever, Dr. Cummings is likely to be
available.  
Allen
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