ABSTRACT
Eco-collaborative housing refers to a range of ‘alternative’ housing and households whose members live in intentional, collectively governed, residential communities sharing resources, skills and spaces. Intentionally transformative models that aim for collective sustainability have the most degrowth potential. If we are to live modestly, collectively meeting our basic needs, then production and distribution must rely on ecological and humane principles neither interrupted nor contorted by production for trade, by monetary values and calculations. Effective governance techniques and processes for meeting our basic needs through localised collective planning, production and distribution are paramount to living sustainably within the regenerative capacities of Earth, enabling us to move beyond money. This chapter compares and contrasts two well-established models to demonstrate such points: Round the Bend Conservation Co-operative in Christmas Hills on the peri-urban fringe of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) and the income-sharing Twin Oaks community near Louisa in Virginia (United States). Twin Oaks has greater potential to achieve degrowth due to their high level of collective sufficiency, minimal trade and production for trade, treating their property as commons, and sharing their collective product and monetary income rather than maintaining private property and separate incomes as in typical cohousing projects.
