Communities #207 (Summer 2025) Breaking the Spell

Volume 2025 - Issue 2

Communities #207, Summer 2025, Breaking the Spell, explores ways that communitarians are challenging and finding alternatives to thought patterns, lifeways, and habits of relating that keep us from realizing our cooperative potential and risk sleepwalking us off of metaphorical cliffs. Two reflections on Hurricane Helene unveil some of the storm’s many lessons; stories profile intentional communities that serve the wider world and act as agents of change as they question car culture, dwelling size and style, and ecophobia; we examine how the dominant society impacts cooperative efforts, as well as groups’ power (sometimes embraced, sometimes not) to engage in solidarity work, racial equity work, and cultural reinvention; authors look at how to navigate polarization, channel fear usefully, and prepare effectively for a post-collapse economy. We also continue our remembrances of Laird Schaub, whose contributions to the communities movement involved confronting many illusions and misconceptions head-on and empowering others to do the same.

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