Alternative Communities

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Below are groups and resources (books, articles, websites, etc.) related to this topic. Click on an item’s title to go its resource page with author, publisher, description/abstract and other details, a link to the full text if available, as well as links to related topics in the Subject Index. You can also browse the Title, Author, Subject, Chronological, Dewey, LoC, and Format indexes, or use the Search box.
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Connexions Library

Alternate Societies: A brief survey on intentional community in European history
Moffatt, Gary
Article
1993
A brief outline of the history of attempts in western society to create living arrangements which would complement, and in some cases further, efforts to become economically independent.
Alternate Society: Volume 2, Number 3 - July 1970
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1970
Alternative Toronto: 1980 - 1995
Website
2017
A community archive and historical map of Toronto’s alternative cultures, scenes and spaces of the 1980s and early 1990s.
American Commune
Croshere, Mundo Rena (Director)
Film/Video
Sisters Rena and Nadine return to The Farm, the legendary hippie commune in Tennessee where they were raised, to tell the story of their alternative family and the rise and fall of America's largest u...
Building Economic Alternatives
Moffatt, Gary
Article
1992
Moffatt outlines many currently practiced methods of creating an alternative economy.
A Call to Community
Article
1969
A proposed community.
The Case for Grassroots Archives
Diemer, Ulli
Article
2012
Grassroots archives play a valuable role in what has been called "the battle of memory". People's history projects such as grassroots archives preserve and share stories of resistance, hidden historie...
Commune (intentional community): Connexipedia Article
Article
An intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work and income.
Commune (socialism): Connexipedia Article
Article
Almost universally, communists, left-wing socialists, anarchists and others have seen the Commune as a model for the liberated society that will come after the masses are liberated from capitalism, a ...
Communes in America: The Place Just Right
Horowitz, Elinor Lander
Book
1972
Traces the history of collective settlements in the United States and compares their organization and purpose with the communes of today.
Communes USA: A Personal Tour
Fairfield, Richard
Book
1972
An account of a variety of communes in the United States.
Community
Moffatt, Gary
Article
1972
The time has come to start a community. The purpose of this article is to explain why and how.
Diggers and Dreamers: The Guide to Communal Living
Coates, Chris; How, Jonathan; Jones, Lee; Morris, William; Wood, Andy (eds.)
Book
1995
Exploring Alternatives: Free Schools
Moffatt, Gary; Westley, Dennis
Article
1969
Since our schools and universities are unwilling to adopt basic, or even moderate, reform, the only way to achieve a worthwhile education is through free schools.
Foundations
Giangrande, Carole
Article
1972
Communes, communism, comradeship -- whatever you wish to call the mood of the young both in and out of communal homes -- will die without an understanding of our foundations, in history, where we have...
Freedomites: Wikipedia article
Article
Freedomites, also called Svobodniki or the Sons of Freedom, first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, Canada, and later in the Kootenay and Boundary districts of British Columbia, as a Doukhobor group.
Green Business: Hope or Hoax?: Toward an Authentic Strategy for Restoring the Earth
Plant, Christopher, Plant, Judith
Book
1991
Is green business a viable strategy or a contradiction in terms?
Icarians: Connexipedia Article
Article
A French utopian movement, founded by Étienne Cabet, who led his followers to America where they established a group of egalitarian communes during the period from 1848 through 1898.
Inside Rochdale
Article
1971
What Rochdale has done is to provide a meeting ground on which those disenchanted with the running of modern society can attempt to work out an alternative environment.
Is that an archive in your basement... or are you just hoarding?: Sources News Release
Article
2012
Are you an 'accidental archivist'? Have you been saving the publications and documents produced by the social justice projects you've been involved in? Then Connexions would like to hear from you.
Memory as Resistance: Grassroots Archives and the Battle of Memory: Preservation as subversion: Do grassroots archives have a future?
Article
2012
CONNEXIONS and Beit Zatoun are spotlighting grassroots archives this November with an open house and networking event November 24, a talk and discussion November 27, and an exhibit (November 16-27). G...
Moffatt, Gary: Connexipedia Article
Article
2010
Canadian anarchist and activist.
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - August 21, 2014: Killings by Police
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Khan, Tahmid (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2014
Topic of the week is Killings by Police. Articles on the way the Ebola crisis illuminates the moral bankruptcy of capitalism; Responding the capitalist crisis, in 1914 and 2014; Globaling Gaza: Israel...
Sex and Marriage in Utopian Communities in Nineteenth Century America: Nineteenth-Century America
Muncy, Raymond Lee
Book
1973
A look at original approaches to sex and marraige in the utopian communities of nineteenth-century America. Many of these communities abolished monogamy and individualism and sought ways of dealing wi...
Steal This Book
Hoffman, Abbie
Book
1971
A guide to fighting government and corporations. The book is divided into three sections, "Survive!", "Fight!" and "Liberate!"
Strange Cults and Utopias of 19th Century America: Original title: History of American Socialisms
Noyes, John Humphrey
Book
1870
Histories of communal experiments and communities in the United States.
Transforming Ourselves Transforming the World: An Open Conspiracy for Social Change
Murphy, Brian K.
Book
1999
Addresses society's pessimism about social change and provides a theoretical means and practice to overcome this fatalism.
Utopia in the Catskills
Louis Proyect
Article
2013
Proyect talks about "Utopia in the Catskills," an article published on July 20, 1947, which is about refugees who wanted to be farmers and made Woodridge, N.Y., into a prosperous farm-resort town with...

Connexions Directory of Groups & Websites

Communities
Since 1972, Communities has been the primary resource for information, issues, and ideas about intentional communities in North America - from urban co-ops to cohousing groups to ecovillages to rural ...
Connexions Archive & Library
The Connexions Archive & Library is Toronto-based project dedicated to keeping alive the rich history of grassroots movements for social justice. Connexions preserves 'alternative' histories that r...

From the Connexions Archives

Dandelion Community
Organization profile published 1983
Organization
1983