Diggers and Dreamers

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Diggers and Dreamers: The Guide to Communal Living is a primary resource for information, issues, and ideas about intentional communities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – from urban co-ops to cohousing groups to rural communes and low impact developments.

History[]

Diggers and Dreamers was first published in 1989 as a resource for information, issues, and ideas about intentional communities and communal living in the UK. The project was an offshoot of the Communes Network, a loose organisation that was established at a meeting on 15–16 February 1975 organised by the Communes Movement,[1] which itself was started in 1968 by Selene Community,[1] and which had achieved a distribution of 3000 copies of its journal, Communes: Journal of the Communes Movement, in March 1971.[2]

The bi-annual journal (and from 1999 accompanying website) focusses on all aspects of communal living, with articles covering practical "how-to-do-it" issues of community living as well as personal stories about forming new communities, decision-making, conflict resolution, raising children in community, and sustainability. Through the years there have been contributions from academics and writers studying communal living. Alongside the journal there has been a directory of communal groups.

The book, now in its 10th edition, has been variously described as "the communards bible",[3] "...a fascinating insight into the world of communal living in Britain",[4] and an "exciting combination of journal and service publication".[5]

Publisher[]

Diggers and Dreamers, available both in print and online, is published by Diggers & Dreamers Publications, which also publishes Utopia Britannica and Thinking About Cohousing. Editorial decisions are made by a small collective made up of around 4 or 5 members drawn from different communities around the UK who describe themselves as a "self-appointed-headless-elite-anarchist-editorial-collective with no office, elastic editorial policies, concertina finances and a can-do/why-not attitude problem."[6]

Themes[]

Over the years the publication has covered a wide variety of topics connected with communal living and has featured articles by both those living communally and those studying it. The themes covered by articles include:

  • Decision-making
  • Manual labour
  • Childcare
  • A day in the life
  • Developmental communalism
  • Sustainable communal living around the globe
  • Developing cohousing in the UK
  • Why Feminism needs Utopianism
  • The value of art in community
  • Research and development for Utopia

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Dawling, Pam (1992–1993). "What is the Communes Network?" (PDF). Diggers & Dreamers. Diggers & Dreamers Publications. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  2. ^ Christensen, Karen; Levinson, David (2003). Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual world, Volume 1. Berkshire Publishing Group. ISBN 9780761925989. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  3. ^ I-to-I Magazine 1995
  4. ^ Peace News 1999
  5. ^ Solidarity Journal 1993
  6. ^ Diggers and Dreamers. The Guide to Communal Living 2008/2009. ISBN 978-0-9545757-2-4

External links[]

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