Source
doi:10.1111/1468-2427.13209 — original publication (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Summary
Multi-author intervention paper from International Journal of Urban and Regional Research proposing five eco-community strategies for sustainable and equitable cities, derived from collective qualitative and ethnographic research across global eco-communities. Argues that eco-communities offer concrete sociomaterial alternatives to neoliberal technocratic urbanism — through sharing economies, democratic governance, decentralised resource management, and participatory planning. Key thesis contribution: the five strategies as a design framework for community-scale ecological living. Key NI contribution: Lancaster Co-housing energy stack (solar + biomass + micro-hydro) and the “community scale > individual behaviour change” efficiency principle.
Scope note: Paper is urban/city-focused. Neobiome application is limited to the design principles and the Lancaster Co-housing case study — the urban inequality and social justice discussion is not directly transferable to rural/peri-urban NZ community design.
Key claims
Five eco-community strategies (thesis framework)
- Five strategies for urban ecological futures derived from empirical eco-community research: (1) non-extractive community economies; (2) democratic processes of co-operative action; (3) social approaches to resource management; (4) participatory collaborative governance; (5) urban heterogeneity and social justice. LIT_014
- Eco-communities as “interstitial transformation” (Wright 2010): alternative socio-technical experiments at the fringes of capitalism that can be tested, demonstrated, and potentially scaled through wider policy adoption. LIT_014
- Tir y Gafel (Wales, UK, est. 2009): changed regional planning legislation through advocacy → One Planet Development policy; Lilac (Leeds) supported replication of modular strawbale construction — eco-communities can shift mainstream planning and building policy, not merely demonstrate alternatives in isolation. LIT_014
Community scale efficiency
- “Operating and sharing at a community (or neighbourhood) scale is more efficient than relying on a smart urbanism that focuses on individual behaviour change.” — direct comparison of community-scale resource management against technology-led individual approaches. LIT_014
- Eco-communities’ non-market sharing economies reduce household production costs: the larger the community economy, the smaller household costs of cooking, shopping, and maintenance; shared materials, knowledge, food co-ops, and tools reduce the amount residents need to work for money. LIT_014
- Celo Community (USA, est. 1937): 80+ years of continuous commons stewardship — the longest empirical demonstration of sustained cooperative commons governance cited in the paper. LIT_014
Energy and infrastructure (Lancaster Co-housing)
- Lancaster Co-housing (England, UK, est. 2006): energy from solar panels + shared biomass boiler + community micro-hydro scheme in a nearby river; cargo bikes and tricycles for local transport; shared laundry room, food store, tool shed, and communal bedrooms — complete community energy and resource-sharing infrastructure stack. LIT_014
Scale context
- Cities account for 75% of global CO₂ emissions and are projected to house 7 in 10 people by 2050 (citing C40 Cities, 2021) — scale framing for community-scale ecological interventions. LIT_014
Research targets
Documents to retrieve
- [RT_062 — mis-scoped; the doc retrieved (LIT_081) is Lockyer 2017 Dancing Rabbit, NOT a Lancaster Cohousing source.] The Lockyer 2017 paper is ingested as LIT_081 (Dancing Rabbit, Missouri). ⚠ The Lancaster Cohousing solar+biomass+micro-hydro infrastructure this RT hoped to source is NOT in that paper — it is a separate UK case in LIT_014. Residual: source Lancaster Cohousing directly (Pickerill / Lancaster Cohousing website) if that infrastructure detail is needed. Not re-minted as a new RT; left as an annotated LIT_014 residual.
Connections
Links to
Sources (1): LIT_081
Referenced by
SSI indicators (4): I01: Financial & Economic Self-Sufficiency · I04: Human Development & Social Capital · I05: Good Governance & Transparency · I09: Environmental Sustainability
Sources (3): LIT_030 · LIT_070 · REG_043
EDT domains (1): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems