Learning Sustainability through Participation in the Ecovillage: A Study of Four Cases

Abstract

Ecovillages provide ideal sites for the study of sustainability learning, as learning is integral to the envisioning, development, management, and everyday experience of these sustainable communities. Insight on the learning experiences of ecovillage residents and visitors can contribute to understanding the factors and conditions necessary for learning that fosters transitions to “one-planet living.” Three research questions guided a deep exploration of such learning experiences at four North America ecovillages: (1) Through the ecovillage experience what is learned about living sustainably; (2) How does learning occur through the ecovillage experience; and (3) What is the impact of the ecovillage experience/learning on the learner.A multiple case study approach, with document review, participant-observation, and in-depth interviews with key informants and participants engaged in sustainability-oriented learning opportunities, resulted in robust case data on each ecovillage as a sustainable community and learning environment, learning processes and outcomes, and the learner experience. Cross-case analysis enabled comparisons of the role of the environment and community interactions on learning outcomes and processes, conditions that facilitate or constrain learning, and the potential for application of learning beyond the context of the ecovillage. The study illuminates each ecovillage as a unique place for learning, but that similarly provides a sustainable living environment that is low-impact, connected, cooperative, and holistic. Each of these learning environments fosters awareness, perspective, knowledge, skills, and transformation in all three categories of ecovillage-based learning: eco-living, socio-relational learning, and shifts in worldview / values. Ten key findings highlight the importance of a supportive learning environment, the social and participatory nature of the learning, and the potentials and limitations of ecovillage-based sustainability learning. Comparing the empirical evidence to a theoretical understanding of learning sustainability as a transformative, social practice, this dissertation reveals how this learning happens “in real life,” through on-going processes of individual and collective learning, out of unsustainable living embedded in capitalism, consumerism, and individualism, and into sustainable living that embraces life-supporting ways of being and relating, resilience, sufficiency, and commoning, while engaged in dynamic, sustainability-oriented ecologies of living and practice.