Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption

by Ma'ikwe Ludwig, Chris Roth (Editor)

Real hope comes from looking unflinchingly at our current circumstances and then committing wholeheartedly to creative action. Never has that been more urgently needed than right now, with the climate crisis looming larger every day. Together Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption, is a book that advocates for citizen-led, community-based action first and why wait for the government when you can take action today, with your neighbors? From small solutions to the full re-invention of the systems we find ourselves in, this book mixes anecdote with data-based research to bring you a wide range of options that all embody compassion, creativity, and cooperation. Together Resilient looks at intentional community as a model for a low carbon future. While looking realistically at the state of the world and the realities of climate disruption, it finds hope in examples of communities that already live high quality lives that the planet can sustain. It also looks at community as an essential element for surviving the coming (and already present) changes with more resilience and grace, and offers concrete examples of building community as a tool for reducing carbon emissions, outside the context of residential intentional communities.

Genres: Nonfiction

253 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2017

Reviews

[Russell Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

In contrast to Juliet Schor's True Wealth, which I also used for my "Simplicity and Sustainability" class this past semester, Ma'ikwe Ludwig's book is deeply shaped by an awareness of the costs and the difficulty involved in any transition to a more community-oriented, less materially and environmentally harmful way of life. Ludwig's book doesn't attempt to develop broad economic or environmental arguments, in the way Schor's did; rather, she summarizes what she understands (I think most rightly) to be the no-going-back points of industrialization and environmental destruction--points which she believes we have long past--and then calls directly for people to think seriously about organizing communities where we can profoundly lessen our ecological footprint and our economic dependence upon the costly systems of commerce and finance which generate those impacts. It's a very practical book, giving much real advice about how intentional communities can be built and be maintained, what sort of goals those communities should realistically set (such as reducing automobile dependency or water usage), and how that goal-setting should be organized. Ludwig has had years of experience in multiple intentional communities, and she has a lot to say about the relative advantages or disadvantages of attempting to build truly democratic, egalitarian communes (though she doesn't like that word much) in rural vs. urban settings, in keeping one's community small and homogeneous vs. attempting to be more diverse, etc. Her recommendations for rebuilding our political and economic "commons," which cannot be truly separated from any serious effort at community-building, is very good as well. This is a short book, and not a scholarly one, but absolutely worth opening one's mind to all the same.

[Andrew Westphal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book to learn more about perspectives on intentional communities, specifically co-housing. The book is part handbook, part manifesto, and that blend leads to my biggest criticism of the work: the author assumes the reader’s political views. Specifically, Ludwig assumes that the reader shares her highly-developed position on the fringes, which causes much of the book to read like the proverbial “sermon to the choir.” I support almost all of the same views, but not to such an advanced degree, and this felt alienated by the text.
(long-winded) Example: Ludwig sharply criticizes banking as an “extractive” industry, and cites the interest payment on government bonds as an example of financial greed (bottom p. 45). By equating ursury with greed, Ludwig misses the main law of finance by which even humble credit unions operate: the time value of money. From the Tom Bailey’s Savings & Loan Bank in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ we know that even small-scale community lending depends on interest payments to (1) compensate the account-holder for saving their funds instead of spending them, and (2) cover the costs of business for the person who arranges the transaction, the Banker. I absolutely agree that Wall Street has bastardized some otherwise great parts of our American economy through its greed, but it’s wrong for Ludwig to claim ursury is a damaging part of our society.

[Andrew Lohmeier]

Ludwig offers some guidance on how society might change to live with renewable energy and the effects of climate change.
In the author's view, meeting economic needs with less reliance on the current financial system and its integration with a fossil fuels will require a combination of self-awareness, physical work, and social relationship skills. Living without fossil fuels is actually a much more normal state of human affairs, given world history. The transition will depend on a combination of toughness and buoyancy, the ability to bend without breaking, to not be brittle, to bounce back. A lot of this depends on emotional training, not just job and production skills.

[Robin Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book if you live in an intentional community or are thinking of living in community. Great information about how to lessen your eco footprint, build resilience within the community and all the nuts and bolts of keeping it running successfully.

[Alienor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some spectacular bits which deserve 5 stars - and some bits that feel completely wrong now, such as extolling the virtues of the BLM movement.

So 3 stars

[Viki Sonntag · Rating 3 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Invaluable resource for thinking about how living in community can free us from being consumers laced with strong insights on how cooperation grows community as it grows you and backed by some good stories.