Resource Links and Lexicon for Ecovillage and Intentional Community Design

Resource Links and Lexicon

for
Ecovillage and Intentional Community Design

Viver Simples Ecovila, Brazil

© 2019 Bradford Hatcher

Revised 4-9-20

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    The small-community level of social organization, lying between the nuclear family and the town or city, has nearly become a missing link in our social structure, and is even illegal in many places. Yet the design and development of new and diverse community prototypes, and ways of living locally, may be the best hope we have of making it through the man-made trials we have ahead of us, and a better legacy for our grandchildren that a depleted and ruined Earth. But to do this, we need to step up our game, not dumb it down. Experimental communities are still failing at too high a rate. With apologies in advance, this resource aid may seem overwhelming or intimidating, but it is offered for community designers and leaders. It is not offered for entertainment purposes.
    There are more than a hundred pages of links here, grouped into eight general categories. If this page was a practical handbook with everything you might need to know for designing ecovillages and intentional communities, it would have required the efforts of thousands of people contributing to a vast Whole Earth Encyclopedia of a most-unwieldy and unaffordable size. But such a project is already self-assembling and continuously updating itself online. This links page is a partial indexing of that, a sort of card catalog, to help researchers to within a step or two of the needed practical information. This should be most useful when key words or search terms that are needed to find the right information are not yet known. This is also an attempt to scope out the universe of discourse here, so important features to be considered in design won't be overlooked. Many of these links (most in some sections) are to Wikipedia pages, as much for the links to be found there as for the main content. These also get updated frequently. This was often the most convenient way to list a term as a lexical item in a vocabulary of design, or pattern language, and provide some definition for the term. Note that a handful of these links are given because the ideas are not recommended (monoculture for example) so please use a critical eye. Also be aware that most commercial sites may not be disclosing all of the embedded environmental costs of their products, and many may just be blatant greenwashing. Beware also that many government sites, even outside the U.S., are advancing deceptive corporate agendas.
    I am almost tempted to apologize for not making this page less complex and intimidating, but really, there is a lot to consider in designing a community or a simple home within one. Just take it in small bites. Some people may think that the holistic thinking required by such projects might be an easier, more intuition-friendly form of thinking. It isn't: it's real thinking. It uses the brain and not just the heart. Not only are there a multitude of processes to consider - they must also be woven together into a system. You may find your browser's "Find" command handy here if the Table of Contents isn't helpful. If you will be using this page a lot, you might consider saving it to your desktop as an .htm file. It will open in your default browser. Just remember to check back for the very infrequent updates.
    A note on the "Books" section at the end: instead of doing a conventional bibliography, links are given for acquisition of the books, listed by title (use your browser's Find command for authors). Most of these links are to Amazon. What I will personally do, until Amazon starts being kinder to authors and the rest of the world, is to research a book here, study the reviews skeptically, and then acquire the book through the ABE consortium of used book sellers. In cases where the book is provided by a worthy organization, it might be better to pay a higher amount to support the cause. And we ought not to forget inter-library loan as a source for non-reference books, and the libraries themselves for references. I am including only a few of the hundreds of books I have on specific methods and materials. This is because so much of the practical information is still evolving and the online information adapts more quickly.
    This page will be updated only infrequently, so please expect and forgive any dead links you encounter, and note that you can always use the terms in the dead link's title as search terms in other engines. Ironically (or tellingly) sites which use the word 'sustainable' tend to vanish rather quickly. Some sites have been abandoned because the managers haven't shown the sense to leave redirects behind as they move pages around. This doesn't show clear thinking. Sometimes you can try searching the main URL of the dead link in the Wayback Machine, for a version either after or just before the last update of this links page. Sometimes you can just erase all but the main URL of a dead link, try again, and get to a home page. Government agencies and others often lack the sense to leave redirects behind when they move their sites around, but the main domain usually remains. Suggestions for non-commercial links are welcome: please send these to the contact address on the Hermetica home page to get them into the queue.
    There are, of course, many other uses for these links beyond specific projects. Lexicons sections, like those for agriculture, ecology, evolution, or systems thinking, if thoroughly investigated with all of their associated links, might provide the equivalent of a self-taught college degree, or at least a year's worth of courses. Further, between the tips of the false optimist-pessimist dichotomy lies a realistic futurism, one that might recognize how much trouble we're in, and how much human civilization may have to suffer before it begins to learn the needed lessons, and at the same time acknowledge that what we are building here with our human-scale experiments and technologies are the very prototypes for the ways of living that will let us pick ourselves up again, with abject apologies to our ruined world, and begin again as a humbler and less parasitic species.

Table of Contents

A - Thinking Globally
General
Ecopsychology and Deep Ecology
Lexicons, Glossaries, Principles and Environmental Ethics
NGO's, Education, Broad Spectrum Link Pages & Training
Research & News
Oceans, Marine Ecology
Pollution
Population & Carrying Capacity
Pet Impacts and Footprints

B - Acting Locally
Communities - General Ideas
Descent, Degrowth, and Transition
Footprint Minimization, Simple Living
Ecovillage and Intentional Community Networks
Working Communities, Specific Projects
Localization, Relocalization, Bioregionalism
Local Economics - Concepts to Know
Access to Tools, Practical Projects
Simple Living Tips & Tricks
Homesteading Skills, Re-skilling
Food Processing and Storage
Emergency Supplies
Home Health and Herbal Medicine

C - Social Contracts, Legal Structure, Local Politics
Assembling Community
Children and Primary Education
Online and Self-Education
Conflict Resolution
Decision Making
Hospice, Dying and Home Burial
Legal Organization & Explicit Social Contracts
Secular Ethics, Materials for Assembling a Consensual Ethic
Seniors, Intergenerationality & Elder Care
Vision & Mission Statements, Goals & Objectives
Land Use Regulation, Codes and Political Approvals

D - Site Planning and Holistic Design
Database Assembly
Holistic Thinking in Design
Holistic & Systems Thinking
Ecology, a Working Vocabulary
Evolution, a Working Vocabulary

E - Building and Structural
Green Building, Broad Themes and Surveys of Methods
Code Compliance & Building Performance Certification
Greenhouses and Season Extension
Outbuildings, Barns, Special Site Structures
Materials
    Materials - General Concepts & Surveys
    Adhesives
    Chemicals
    Concrete, Cement and Additives
    Engineered Wood
    Glazing
    Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF's)
    Insulation
    Lumber, Sustainably Harvested, Beetle Kill, Recycled, OVE
    Membranes, Geofabrics. Low-Slope Roofing
    Metals
    Plastic Lumber
    Stonework
Parts of Buildings and Building Systems
    Miscellaneous Features
    Conditioned Crawl Spaces
    Earthen and Adobe Floors
    Thatch, Green & Sod Roofing
    Mass Walls
    Foundations
    Siding
    Walls
Pests and Toxins, Air Quality
Styles of Alternative Architecture
    Aboriginal Housing
    Adobe
    Airform, Monolithic Dome
    Cob
    Compressed Earth Block
    Cordwood
    Earth-Sheltered, Berm Houses
    Earthbag & Superadobe, Ceramic Houses & Geltefan
    Earthships
    Geodesic Domes
    Log Homes
    Rammed & Poured Earth
    Shipping Containers, Silo Houses
    Straw Bale
    Timber Frame, Post & Beam
    Tiny Houses, Small Houses, Portable Homes
    Wattle and Daub

F - Infrastructure and Energy
Green Infrastructure, Broad Themes, Links and Surveys of Methods
Appropriate Technology
Earthworks
Energy
     General Energy and Links
     Active-Passive Hybrid Solar, Isolated or Indirect Gain
     Appliances, Machines, Devices, Cogeneration, Efficiency
   Biofuels
   Forced Air, Hydronics
   Electric Storage, Intertie, Conversion, Backup Power
     Energy Conservation
     Geothermal, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Earth Storage
     Gravity Storage
   Heat Storage and Exchange
     Lighting, Panels, Daylighting and Skylights
   Micro Hydro, Waterwheels
   Photovoltaics
     Refrigeration, Cooling, Air Conditioning
   Solar Thermal, Water and Space Heating
     Wind Energy
     Wood Stoves
Engineering
Geohazards, Safety, Fire, Flood, Lightning, Etc.
Recycling - Except Composting (Agriculture) and Septic (Below)
Septic & Grey Water
Transportation - Except Driveways & Trails (Earthworks)
Water - Except in Agriculture

G - Agriculture
Home and Farm Scale Information, Links, Resources
Agroforestry, Orchards and Silvaculture
Aquaculture, Aquaponics, Hydroponics & Fisheries
Aquatic Ecology. Lakes, Rivers, Wetlands
Compost and Fertilizer
Crops and Botany
Entomophagy, Insects as Feed and Food
Farm Animals & Grazing, Vegan Repellants
Fencing and Boundaries
Foraging and Wildcrafting
Irrigation and Water Management (See Infrastructure Also)
Mycology and Mushroom Farming
Permaculture
Pest Management
Plowing, Tillage and No-Till, Perennials
Production Systems and Approaches
Restorative and Regenerative Agriculture; Damaged Ecosystems
Seed Saving and Seed Banks
Soils Ecology and Health
Symbiotes or Symbionts - Birds, Bees, Bats, Worms, etc.
Wind Effects and Wind Erosion

H - Books, Magazines, Articles, and Biographies
Amazon Book Listings and Reviews
Other Book and Article Resources
Magazines
Biographies