Does consensus work? A case study of the Cloughjordan ecovillage, Ireland

Cunningham, PA; Wearing, SL

Does consensus work? A case study of the Cloughjordan ecovillage, Ireland

Cunningham, PA Wearing, SL

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Publisher:: UTS ePRESS
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2013, 5 (2), pp. 1 - 28
Issue Date:: 2013-08-30

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Cunningham, PA	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Wearing, SL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5158-059X	en_US
dc.date.issued	2013-08-30	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2013, 5 (2), pp. 1 - 28	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1837-5391	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/122823
dc.description.abstract	Ecovillages have grown in number around the world since the early 1990s. This growth appears to be largely due to the contested nature of post/modernity and the desire to establish a more simple, meaningful and sustainable lifestyle that is centered on community. The end of the 1990s represented the high tide of neo-liberalism in most advance liberal democracies. Ten years later, and the global economy still demonstrates signs that modes of capitalism have intensified and spread under the influence of global and state orchestrated markets, giving rise to a search for alternatives that might provide other mechanisms for organizing our lives. Cloughjordan Ecovillage is used to examine how governance through a consensus-based decision-making approach works as an alternative in this circumstance. Generally, intentional communities are organized around egalitarian principles and therefore commonly embrace the ideology of consensus. The primary research question guiding this study was – Does consensus work in the governance of alternative lifestyles? The preliminary findings of this case study suggest that in spite of the impressive nature of the built infrastructure at this site, the community continues to struggle with consensus-based decision-making as a form of self-organization and governance.	en_US
dc.publisher	UTS ePRESS	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.5130/ccs.v5i2.3283	en_US
dc.title	Does consensus work? A case study of the Cloughjordan ecovillage, Ireland	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	5	en_US
utslib.for	1506 Tourism	en_US
utslib.for	15 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services	en_US
utslib.for	16 Studies in Human Society	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business/Management Discipline
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	5	en_US

Abstract:

Ecovillages have grown in number around the world since the early 1990s. This growth appears to be largely due to the contested nature of post/modernity and the desire to establish a more simple, meaningful and sustainable lifestyle that is centered on community. The end of the 1990s represented the high tide of neo-liberalism in most advance liberal democracies. Ten years later, and the global economy still demonstrates signs that modes of capitalism have intensified and spread under the influence of global and state orchestrated markets, giving rise to a search for alternatives that might provide other mechanisms for organizing our lives. Cloughjordan Ecovillage is used to examine how governance through a consensus-based decision-making approach works as an alternative in this circumstance. Generally, intentional communities are organized around egalitarian principles and therefore commonly embrace the ideology of consensus. The primary research question guiding this study was – Does consensus work in the governance of alternative lifestyles? The preliminary findings of this case study suggest that in spite of the impressive nature of the built infrastructure at this site, the community continues to struggle with consensus-based decision-making as a form of self-organization and governance.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/122823