A community on Staten Island, New York, USA.
They say: “The word "ganas" is a Spanish word meaning "motivation sufficient to act".
We chose it as a name for our community after watching the movie “Stand and Deliver”, about a teacher in LA who inspired his underachieving students to become motivated to work hard to surpass obstacles to their learning and growth.”
Links to their official site and an interesting article about the ‘free relationships’ and everyday life in their community. They welcome paying guests.
The Gängeviertel (English: Slums-quarter) consists of a few streets that remain of the old poor mans´ quarter in Hamburg, with smaller innercourt-streets called ´gänge´. What was vacant, was squatted in 2009 and the artisan collective thus prevented it from beeing torn down by an investor. Surprisingly, the Municipality bought the houses back from the investor and thus the squatters could continue to evolve the Gängeviertel further, as a legalized entity now. However, the urgent restoration of the buildings is still ground for discourse between local government and the circa 200 residents, since gentrification is on the lure and they want to keep control over the housingpolicy.
The website presents an overview of the public activities and what happens in which houses. It is only in the German language, but under the das Gängenviertel-section you can find some visual Impressionen on what is beeing done there. During the G20 in 2017, the Gängeviertel shows itself as a haven for protestors and a oasis of freedom in a militarized city.
The United Nations named the village a model of sustainable development. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has called founder Paolo Lugari the "inventor of the world." An example of the ‘Blue Economy’; self-sufficiency on a local scale.
Links to video films and descriptions of what goes on there.
Global Communities started out in the USA as the Foundation for Cooperative Housing. It works on sustainability in a ‘bottom-up’ way valuing the views and energy of communities. The agency currently works in more than 20 countries around the world.
The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) is a good place to search for information and links to world-wide ‘communities’. Lots of articles providing food for thought.
GEN-Europe promotes the development of sustainable settlements in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
“We realised that we wanted to inspire people to seek out enriching experiences that would stay with them for life. We realised that when travellers visit a destination in a responsible way, not only are they helping that destination but that destination is also helping them in return.
And so a new meaning and a new mission was born for globalhelpswap.
We’d love it if you joined our tribe of responsible travellers and shared this journey with us. Will you?”
It is an alternative to WWooFing for both hosts and volunteers. The ‘work’ is more varied too. But the internet shows that there is a diverse range of experiences that have come from the scheme, not always entirely positive.
Like other similar schemes, it is essentially a database, for both hosts and volunteers.
Much-mythologised Swedish musicians. Proto-type hippies, mask-wearing, commune-dwelling Psycho-Nauts. Making a lot psychedelic waves round the world festival circuit.
A couple of links to their strange worlds…the second being an official video of the band…
Senegalese eco-village in Africa. An agricultural commune founded in 1933 by a group of French people.
Still actively working for social and environmental change.
Since 2009 it has been a commune. To find out more, check out their website.
Links to a couple of guerrilla gardening sites. The idea is to radicalise and ‘re-wild’ community spaces – public or private. More than a mix of seed bomb tactics and the arcane knowledge of William Robinson’s Wild Gardening.