Making a difference ‐ place-making and negotiating change: A study of an intentional community in Northern Germany

Abstract

The community of Hitzacker/Dorf seeks to establish an other place ‐ a model village providing an alternative to life in mainstream society. This paper aims to develop a better understanding of other places as agents of socio-ecological change. It examines the notion of place-making as central in the materialisation of transformative processes since, in the process of place-making, visions, dreams and hopes need to be renegotiated and tied to the physical reality.Socio-ecological transformation research generally regards so-called niches in which alternatives to the existing structures, institutions and norms are tested as nuclei for larger transformative processes. Intentional communities are spaces of critique in theory and practice ‐ the critique of existing social conditions. The following paper explores alternative place-making through the empirical study of Hitzacker/Dorf, an intentional community in the Wendland area of Germany. It argues that the constant (re)negotiations about what should be different and what connections to the existing society should be sought out determine the transition phase from idea to materiality.