ABSTRACT
This chapter explores, analyses and celebrates the potential for regenerative human habitat and sustainable solutions offered by ecovillages. Broadly speaking, ecovillages are a form of residential community where inhabitants are motivated by eco- and social-centric values to grow place-based human ecosystems; these renewed eco-cultural lifeways provide experimental alternatives to the trajectory of ecocide and social crisis un-reflexively pursued by most modern societies. They participate in regeneration and adaptation of biodiversity; they practice various forms of democratic decision-making and inclusive social practices; and, they innovate forms of economic exchange whose polyvalent metrics measure success differently than do neoliberal economists. The chapter begins by providing background information and context for the emergence of ecovillages and key identifying practices and goals of ecovillages, and then proceeds to provide a case study example of an off-the grid ecovillage located in the southern Appalachian mountains in North Carolina, U.S.: Earthaven Ecovillage. The mission of Earthaven is ‘to create a village which is a living laboratory and educational seed bank for a sustainable human future’. The chapter includes insights from an Earthaven resident who offers insights into how ecovillagers at Earthaven work on village building, land-based livelihoods, small-scale agro-ecological carbon farming, place-based economics, wisdom traditions, permaculture, renewable energy, and radical responsibility. They share how the goal of this work is to help Earthaven residents and visitors attempt to develop lifeways that indigenise humans and gather a cultural seed bank for living more sustainably on a hot and full Earth.
