What is an intentional community?

What is an intentional community?

For most of human history, our ancestors lived in villages, deeply connected to the land, to one another, and to cultural traditions that centered collaboration and care. These ways were systematically dismantled by colonization, and in the past century, capitalism and urbanization have further severed us from our roots—replacing the village with consumerism, and communal care with services to be bought: food, childcare, elder care, medicine, and art.

Yet around the world, communal living still thrives. These ancestral practices, especially within the global majority, offer a powerful blueprint for a future where shared life and land stewardship are reimagined through both ancient wisdom and modern tools.

Our Definition

The FIC defines an intentional community as a group of individuals sharing residential space (housing and/or land) with a common purpose and collectively determined agreements. Typically, intentional communities are developed as models of more cooperative, sustainable and just ways of life. 

Intentional communities can take many shapes and sizes, from city cohousing to countryside ecovillages, communes or student housing cooperatives. These are all types of intentional communities. 

Are you curious to dig a little deeper? Download our free Starter Guide to Intentional Community.

Going Deeper

Intentional Communities are models for reimagining society, rooted in ancestral ways of living based on cooperation, mutual support, and shared stewardship of land – blended with modern technology and approaches for personal and communal transformation.

Many intentional communities are also leading the way in reshaping systems to build a more just and equitable world—serving as laboratories of how human settlements and relationships could look like on a larger scale.

• Social isolation -> Social connection is at the heart of community life. By prioritizing emotional support, shared daily life, and authentic relationships, communities create spaces where people feel seen, held, and a true sense of belonging.
• Rising housing costs ->  Sharing spaces and resources like food and tools, and purchasing land as a group, reduces housing costs, making living more affordable.
• Environmental degradation -> Sharing resources, such as cars and washing machines, reduces individual footprints. Many communities also prioritize sustainability by growing their own food, building natural houses and ecological sewage systems, and using solar energy.

• • Lack of purpose -> By connecting members through specific values, communities provide opportunities for more meaningful and connected lives where each individual is an important part of the collective co-creation.

• Inequality -> Practicing cooperative economics and post-capitalist alternatives like mutual aid, resource sharing, gift economies, local currencies, and regenerative livelihoods, to reduce reliance on exploitative systems and build economic equity

• Power imbalances -> Cultivating democratic participation, consensus decision-making, and shared power to create spaces for inclusive, nonviolent social transformation

Next Steps

Explore the directory map of intentional communities throughout the world

Create your profile and join the movement! Talk to others living in or looking for intentional community

Further your education – explore the Communiversity library