Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing Alternative

[Douglas Simons (doug]

>  But in the end, it seems to be "housing" that creates
>  the biggest mental hurdles.

I'm inclined to agree.  It seems that having the word housing in  
there slants the focus toward the physical structures.  The real  
point, though, is achieving an increased sense of community through  
greater opportunities for social interaction.  The term "cohousing",  
for all its validity, places the emphasis on the means rather than  
the goal.

The concept of community covers a broad range, from the intimate  
community of a couple at home, to the world community that we're all  
a part of.  Surely the level of community that the cohousing movement  
deals with is that of a neighborhood, striving for an environment  
that fosters "neighborliness" and a sense of belonging to an extended  
family which we rarely experience within our biological families  
nowadays.

Russell listed "Intentional Neighbourhood" on his rejected list, but  
I'm not sure why.  It seems to me that this phrase does a pretty good  
job of capturing the essence of what we're about.  I did some  
browsing in the Digital Webster to see what else I could come up with  
(trying out things like "Purposeful Neighborhood", "Conscious  
Neighborhood", and "Deliberate Neighborhood"), but "Intentional"  
still seems closest to the mark.  Just for your pleasure, here's a  
discussion of some of these terms, snagged from Webster's definition  
of Voluntary:

"VOLUNTARY, INTENTIONAL, DELIBERATE, WILLING mean done or brought  
about of one's own will. VOLUNTARY implies freedom and spontanity of  
choice or action without external compulsion; INTENTIONAL stresses an  
awareness of an end to be achieved; DELIBERATE implies full  
consciousness of the nature of one's act and its consequences;  
WILLING implies a readiness and eagerness to accede to or anticipate  
the wishes of another. "

Cheers,

Doug