Abstract
ABSTRACTThe security risks posed by the Anthropocene requires peace education strategies aimed at developing the skills necessary for the emergence of regenerative social forms, based on sustainable synergies between humans and nature. This article explores how community-building and regenerative ecology frameworks developed in ecovillages can contribute to that goal, through the case study analysis of the peace education initiative carried out in Israel and the West Bank by Tamera – Healing Biotope I, an ecovillage located in southern Portugal. The findings illustrate the difficulty of creating regenerative social forms through the reproduction of whole system ideal models for sustainable human settlements, due to the vulnerability of intentional communities to the internal reproduction of ethnopolitical loyalties and conflicts. They also illustrate how a combination of local embeddedness and transnational connections contribute to the diffusion of social innovations produced in ecovillages. However, local ethnopolitical organizations and movements tend to promote resistance to the adoption of externally produced frameworks for the development of competences of collaborative sociability and non-violent conflict resolution. The article concludes with an appeal to a transdisciplinary collaboration among scholars, practitioners and public institutions in the development of synergistic models of peace education that are multipliable, but context-sensitive.
Highlights
IntroductionThe core goal of ecovillages is to minimize the ecological footprint of human activity (Ergas and Clement 2015) by ‘putting bioregional thought and permaculture methodology in practice at the community level’ (Lockyer and Veteto 2013, 15)
This article explores how community-building and regenerative ecology frameworks developed in ecovillages can contribute to that goal, through the case study analysis of the peace education initiative carried out in Israel and the West Bank by Tamera – Healing Biotope I, an ecovillage located in southern Portugal
How can methodologies and technologies developed in ecovillages contribute to strategies of peace education that respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene? So far, scholarship on peace education tended to focus on the promotion of attitudinal and behavioral changes through the classroom-based transmission of curricula for understanding conflict and peace, as well as norms and strategies for non-violent sociability
Summary
The core goal of ecovillages is to minimize the ecological footprint of human activity (Ergas and Clement 2015) by ‘putting bioregional thought and permaculture methodology in practice at the community level’ (Lockyer and Veteto 2013, 15) This is promoted by institutional arrangements and social technologies aimed at supporting the management of common pool resources by developing, through everyday praxis as well as nonformal education, collaborative capabilities such as diversity inclusion, participatory decision-making and the non-violent resolution of conflicts (Avelino and Kunze 2009; Dawson 2012; Joubert and Alfred 2014).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
