Dear community friends,

we are currently gathering information for a new edition of the „eurotopia“ Directory of European Communities. In it, we are presenting intentional communities, ecovillages, cohabitation projects and others – places where people live together and make joint decisions about their lives. We wrote a definition of what we consider a community at https://eurotopia.directory/definitions-of-community/. Find an image of a sample entry here.

We are not sure if your project fits our community definition. Plus, we do not have your e-mail address or mobile phone number, which makes it more complicated to ask you these questions – we usually send our call for submissions per e-mail.

It would be really nice of you to let us know when you think that you should not be included in our directory, or, if you are an existing community (with at least 3 to 5 people living together without family ties), to submit your information so that we can present you. Publication is free for you; we support our work by selling the finished book. We also plan to feature communities on a platform we’ll call IClist.org in the future (see below „about our book“).

Online, it is very convenient and easy to send/correct/complete your data.

Please go to https://data.iclist.org/?uuid=[see your personal letter]

Your access code is [see your personal letter]

If you send us either e-mail address or mobile phone number, we can reply with the details without you having to type them in. It’s best to quote “your” number [see your personal letter] so that we can identify you immediately.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll find data and images that you may already have sent us in the past.

Of course, you can also send us your information by post. A questionnaire is attached. All the information is optional, but we absolutely want a description of your community. It should focus on what makes your community special and what is important to you in your community. Try to make it a pleasant and inspiring text. It should not exceed 200 words. We can shorten your description if it’s too long, or correct it for grammar or spelling. This applies to both postal submissions and entries in the online form.

Don’t hesitate to send us some great photos that we can use. If necessary, let us know the name of the photographer (e.g. in the message field on the form).

In all cases, we ask you to respond – either by logging in and submitting data or by replying to this letter. We don’t like to send these letters if you’re not interested!

GEN Europe, the European network of ecovillages and sustainable communities, asked us to share their invitation to join their recently updated membership programme to access the tools, resources, inspiration and culture of ecovillages across Europe and beyond. They have over 25 years‘ experience in connecting communities and understand the unique joys and challenges of community living. In fact, they helped fund the very first eurotopia directory (published in 1997). If you are not yet a member, check out the new membership categories and their benefits and enjoy the mutual support provided by the network which will become a vital part of the future given the challenges ahead:

Ecovillage Membership

If you would like more information, please contact GEN Europe at:

I myself will be present at the major GEN-Europe meeting in Sweden (20-25 August), see https://ecovillagegathering.org/.

WHAT’S THE DEADLINE?

If we receive most of the replies before the end of August, we’ll be able to publish the book in the autumn.

With greetings from the community, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Michael Würfel

for the eurotopia editorial team

About our book, if you don’t know it yet: Since our first pocket book edition in 1997, we have been able to print many thousand copies in German and English and helped bring a Spanish edition into the world. The eurotopia Directory features addresses and self-descriptions of hundreds of communities and ecovillages in Europe, useful addresses of community related organizations and an introductory part with articles about community living. For many people, the eurotopia Directory is the most important way to get into contact with communities and community life, for others it’s an important guide to fellow communities. It also helps to build bridges between communities and the interested world outside of that scene. Here’s a link to the current English edition:

https://eurotopiaversand.de/en/Book-Print/eurotopia-Directory-low-cost-worldwide-shipping.html.

Since it is carefully edited, it manages to be the most comprehensive listing (on- and offline) of intentional communities in Europe. In the future, we will also present the communities that submitted their data and agreed to be presented online on a website we will call IClist.org – short for Intentional Community Listing. In our form, we ask permission to present your data online; you can easily choose to be presented only in the book and not on the Internet.

Privacy Policy: For our directory we actively collect data of intentional communities and community related institutions, not from private persons. If we do receive and store data from private persons, e.g. as contact persons for institutions or intentional communities, then we use these solely for the purpose of creating, updating or publishing a printed and maybe at some point digital directory of intentional communities and community related institutions. This email is also sent to email addresses that we have stored for that purpose. We store this data as long as we need it for the described purpose. Upon your inquiry we will tell you what data we have stored from you and will delete it as requested. Please also refer to our privacy policy document at https://eurotopiaversand.de/en/Privacy-Policy/