Eco-villages are ecologically sustainable villages, from 50 to 150 people (the maximum social network according to most measurements from sociology and anthropology). Larger towns of up to 2000 people are sometimes described as eco-villages, but technically, these transcend any reasonable definition of a single village and are more properly describe clusters of same, each perhaps focusing on a different aspect of economy.

An eco-village is a small community united by shared ecological, social and/or spiritual values. It is often composed of people avoiding participation in power networks that they see as oppressive, or simply uncomfortable. However, often, they co-operate with peer villages in a power network of their own (see Ten Thousand Villages for such an example.)

The principles on which ecovillages rely can be applied to urban (see especially co-housing) and to rural settings, as well as to developing and developed countries. It seeks infrastructural independence and a sustainable lifestyle of voluntary simplicity for inhabitants with a minimum of trade or contact with the outside, especially where that trade or contact involves a high risk of the community losing coherence.

An eco-village is usually relying on some "green" infrastructural capital

• autonomous building
• renewable energy systems
• co-housing

Its organization also usually depends upon some instructional capital or moral codes - a minimal civics sometimes characterized as eco-anarchism:

• Local purchasing to ensure local food supply is always available
• moral purchasing to avoid objectionable consumption
• consensus democracy for governance
• a choice to respect diversity

Not to be confused with: micronation, a strictly legal not infrastructural concept.

See also: Eco-feminism, Eden Alternative, Mennonite, green politics, bioneer

External links

• Global Eco-village Network
• The Intentional Communities website
• The Land is Ours