Themes | ToGather

How intentional communities handle governance, conflict, economy, belonging, land and culture, traced through interviews across the archive.

Pages

Home
About — ToGather is a long term field research archive by photographer and researcher Sharon Avraham, documenting how intentional communities govern themselves.
Challenges And Solutions — Challenges And Solutions on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Communities — 35+ intentional communities, ecovillages and kibbutzim documented through firsthand interviews and field notes. Browse by country and theme.
Community Detail — Community Detail on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Contact — Get in touch with Sharon Avraham about the ToGather archive, interviews or collaboration.
Contributor Profile Page — Contributor Profile Page on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Contributors — Contributors on ToGather: Documenting living systems. Regenerative ethnography and field notes on belonging.
Contributors Challenges — Contributors Challenges on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Exhibition — Regenerative ethnography and field notes on belonging. Explore different communities via high-fidelity research, photography, and an interactive AI hivemind.
Field Note Detail — Field Note Detail on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Field Notes — Field notes and news from intentional communities around the world, gathered and annotated for the ToGather archive.
Interview Detail — Interview Detail on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Interviews — Long form interviews with people living in intentional communities, ecovillages and kibbutzim, recorded in the field by Sharon Avraham.
Join Conversation — Join Conversation on ToGather: Documenting living systems. Regenerative ethnography and field notes on belonging.
Living Library — Frameworks, practices and books that intentional communities use to govern themselves and live together, each explained with examples from the field.
Research — Research on ToGather: Documenting living systems. Regenerative ethnography and field notes on belonging.
Research Library — Research Library on ToGather: Documenting living systems. Regenerative ethnography and field notes on belonging.
Resource Detail — Resource Detail on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
Theme Detail — Theme Detail on ToGather: Documenting living systems. ToGather is a field research archive of firsthand interviews, field notes.
All Interviews Index — Every interview in the ToGather archive, listed by community and speaker.
Privacy — What data ToGather collects, why, who processes it, how long it is kept and how to exercise your rights.
Terms — Terms for reading, contributing to and reusing the ToGather research archive.

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 .