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Interviews

In-depth conversations with community members, founders, and residents exploring the lived experience of intentional living.

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ToGather: a field research archive of intentional communities and ecovillages

ToGather documents how intentional communities govern themselves, share resources, hold land, handle money, and navigate conflict. It is built on primary fieldwork: multi-day visits, first-person interviews, and photography, gathered over fifteen years by Sharon Avraham across Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, India and Israel-Palestine.

It is a research archive rather than a directory. Every claim about a community traces back to a recorded interview or a field note. The archive holds 35 documented communities, 27 published interviews, and 446 research insights organised across six themes. Depth is the point: 35 communities with real research rather than a thousand listings.

Six research themes

Governance. How communities make decisions: sociocracy, consensus, councils, direct democracy, and hybrid models.
Conflict. How communities disagree, repair relationships, and hold cohesion when it breaks.
Economy and money. Shared income, contribution systems, land trusts, cooperative finance.
Culture and vision. Ritual, values transmission, and what holds a group together over time.
Belonging. Thresholds of membership, identity, and what it means to actually join.
Land and joining. Land tenure, ownership models, trial periods, and the path from visitor to member.

Communities documented in the archive

Tamera, Portugal. Council-based governance with spiritual and ecological guidance.
Traditional Dream Factory, Portugal. A DAO with voting weighted by tokens, presence and contribution.
Spirala Ecovillage, Portugal. Collective decision-making across the whole membership.
Ananda Kalyani, Portugal.
Essencia, Portugal.
House of the Rising Mojo, Portugal.
Kibbutz Samar, Israel-Palestine. Weekly general assembly, direct democracy.
Auroville, India. Participatory governance through working groups and a Residents' Assembly.
Sadhana Forest, India. Consensus-based decision making.
Feÿtopia, France. Hybrid governance: centralised ownership with seasonal doocracy.
Life Itself, France. Evolving membership and board structure built around qualitative contribution.
Kibboutz Akiva, France. Decisions made by a council of elders and leadership representatives.
Ruigoord, Netherlands. A cultural free haven organised through commissions, volunteers and partners.
Nieuw en Meer, Netherlands. Foundation-managed with tenant involvement through the Niks Minder association.
ADM, Netherlands. Self-organised with collective decision-making.
Vidàlia, Spain. Sociocracy 3.0, structured in circles with tiered membership.
Lakabe, Spain.
Sunseed Desert Technology, Spain.
Sieben Linden, Germany. Consensus-based with council and working groups.
Schloss Tempelhof, Germany.
ZEGG, Germany.
Damanhur, Italy. A living constitution that evolved from 130 articles in 1981 to 15 core principles.
Findhorn Ecovillage, Scotland. Consensus-based decision-making with working groups.
Lammas Ecovillage, Wales.
Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland. A democratic company structure with working groups.
Suderbyn Ecovillage, Sweden.
Sólheimar Ecovillage, Iceland. Collective decision-making across the membership.
Twin Oaks Community, USA. Direct democracy with rotating leadership roles.
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, USA. Modified consensus with ecological covenant requirements.
Earthaven Ecovillage, USA. Council-based consensus with neighbourhood autonomy.
EcoVillage at Ithaca, USA. A democratic cooperative with neighbourhood and village councils.
Los Angeles Eco-Village, USA. A democratic cooperative with neighbourhood councils.
The Farm Community, USA. Democratic governance with community agreements.
Crystal Waters Eco Village, Australia. An incorporated association with an elected board and community consensus.
Huehuecoyotl, Mexico.

Reading this without JavaScript? The full archive is also served as plain HTML at togatherproject.eu/functions/archiveHtml , with every community, interview, theme, library entry and field note rendered in full.

Sections of the archive

Communities : the full documented directory, with governance model, land tenure, founding year and membership route.
Interviews : first-person conversations with members, founders and stewards.
Themes : the six research dimensions, with findings drawn across communities.
Research : thematic analysis and cross-community findings.
Living Library : curated reference pages on governance frameworks, conflict practices and ownership models.
Field Notes : ongoing news and updates from communities worldwide.
Exhibition : field photography from the visits.
About : the project, the method, and who is behind it.

Founded and researched by Sharon Avraham. Contact through togatherproject.eu/Contact . Written fieldwork also appears at jointogatherproject.substack.com .