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Living Together: Searching for Community in a Fractured World
This inspiring journey around the UK’s communes, eco-villages and co-living spaces to find more compassionate, connected and sustainable ways to live could not be more timely.
Seventy-six per cent of people feel that we’ve become more distanced from our neighbours in the last 20 years. We are less likely than our grandparents, or even our parents, to know the names of our neighbours, to enjoy multi-generational friendships or to share resources and childcare. With mental health at epidemic levels, the climate crisis worsening, and society feeling increasingly divided, this game-changing book asks whether there are better ways to live.
Mim Skinner sets out to explore communities that have rejected individualism and nuclear family life in order to embrace a more collective way of living. As she meets those who have had the courage to imagine a better world and start living it – in countercultural hippy communes, the disability led L’Arche communities, queer safe spaces, environmental campaign groups, rehab support networks and more – she asks how each is tackling the social issues of our time and finding greener and more connected ways to be together.
Mixing memories and reflections of her own unconventional upbringing with interviews and research into the international history of communalism, Mim Skinner challenges her own assumptions as well as ours as she searches for a more meaningful way of life and finds multiple options for alternative ways of living – from commercial co-living developments for time-starved urbanites to off-grid farm communities, low-cost co-operative estates and collaborative parenting schemes.
The result is an eye-opening snapshot of alternative communities and a much-needed new perspective on the concept of wellness. It asks whether individualism can ever give us the tools to live in healthy and equal ways and offers a glimpse into the possibility – and also the pitfalls – of life lived differently.
Seventy-six per cent of people feel that we’ve become more distanced from our neighbours in the last 20 years. We are less likely than our grandparents, or even our parents, to know the names of our neighbours, to enjoy multi-generational friendships or to share resources and childcare. With mental health at epidemic levels, the climate crisis worsening, and society feeling increasingly divided, this game-changing book asks whether there are better ways to live.
Mim Skinner sets out to explore communities that have rejected individualism and nuclear family life in order to embrace a more collective way of living. As she meets those who have had the courage to imagine a better world and start living it – in countercultural hippy communes, the disability led L’Arche communities, queer safe spaces, environmental campaign groups, rehab support networks and more – she asks how each is tackling the social issues of our time and finding greener and more connected ways to be together.
Mixing memories and reflections of her own unconventional upbringing with interviews and research into the international history of communalism, Mim Skinner challenges her own assumptions as well as ours as she searches for a more meaningful way of life and finds multiple options for alternative ways of living – from commercial co-living developments for time-starved urbanites to off-grid farm communities, low-cost co-operative estates and collaborative parenting schemes.
The result is an eye-opening snapshot of alternative communities and a much-needed new perspective on the concept of wellness. It asks whether individualism can ever give us the tools to live in healthy and equal ways and offers a glimpse into the possibility – and also the pitfalls – of life lived differently.
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Paperback
Published November 3, 2022
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164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 20, 2023
This book was so so good! A really insightful exploration into different kinds of communal living! The author was quite unbiased about it all which made it easier to understand which features of different kinds of communities worked best.
June 19, 2023
An interesting and thought provoking read on a topic I've never really considered before. Personally i found it easier to skim read and take away the topline points rather than read in detail, whereas i really liked her previous book Jailbirds that felt easier to connect to.
February 28, 2023
This is a really brilliant, well-researched book. Practical, engaging, and optimistically-minded. It really gives a sense of the many different ways that community life can be lived.
April 16, 2023
An interesting and, at times, thought-provoking look at varying models of communal living. I was particularly struck by the reminder that certain concepts of living can easily be co-opted and sold back to us at a premium, thereby excluding several sectors of society. At times I felt the author's perspective was a little too subjective and she was perhaps too quick to pass comment on some of the societies she was researching; however I did enjoy her wry humour and self-awareness.
June 19, 2024
interesting, generous, thought provoking, honest…but also repetitive, rambly, nothing super profound or surprising really. lots of my own prejudices a bit ruffled, not sure if in a helpful way…?
May 28, 2023
I have found the concept of living constantly in bigger groups fascinating. As a young child, living for the most part with one set of grandparents, I thought I would always be ready for the vagaries of living in a more complex environment. With age, I have found myself being less flexible and more in need of control than I ever thought I would want, and I shun the constant company of people.
So when I saw this book, I had to check it out and see what the author discussed.
The concept was not exactly what I thought I would be getting, but the author has her own approach to the topic, and that was informative.
We begin with the author's own forays into shared living spaces and the effort she once put in to be a certain way. There is an exploration of cults and community living of varying degrees of ownership, and all of this is interspersed with co-living quarters that mirror those of co-working spaces, which resemble hostels but not quite. No two consecutive chapters are on the same style of living, they are broken apart, and that definitely made it easier for me to read in longer stretches.
The writing flows just like it is being narrated to the reader, and the author is not an uninterested spectator. With some plans in the running for her own family, she is testing the waters and is quite upfront about any scepticism she might carry.
I felt it was an important book, one that did not quite turn out the way I hoped, but still well worth a read. I highly recommend this to non-fiction fans and people interested in how living together looks like in different mindsets.
I would love to read any other books the author writes since I really enjoyed her narrative voice.
I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.
So when I saw this book, I had to check it out and see what the author discussed.
The concept was not exactly what I thought I would be getting, but the author has her own approach to the topic, and that was informative.
We begin with the author's own forays into shared living spaces and the effort she once put in to be a certain way. There is an exploration of cults and community living of varying degrees of ownership, and all of this is interspersed with co-living quarters that mirror those of co-working spaces, which resemble hostels but not quite. No two consecutive chapters are on the same style of living, they are broken apart, and that definitely made it easier for me to read in longer stretches.
The writing flows just like it is being narrated to the reader, and the author is not an uninterested spectator. With some plans in the running for her own family, she is testing the waters and is quite upfront about any scepticism she might carry.
I felt it was an important book, one that did not quite turn out the way I hoped, but still well worth a read. I highly recommend this to non-fiction fans and people interested in how living together looks like in different mindsets.
I would love to read any other books the author writes since I really enjoyed her narrative voice.
I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.
September 18, 2023
Mim Skinner examines different community living projects across the UK, and explores how community living can tackle this generation's loneliness epidemic. Mim herself has an interesting background which is shared in snippets at the start and throughout, and it's clear from her writing style she's an experienced journalist.
Each chapter of the book explores how different communities live together - some out of necessity (disabled adults, rehab centres), and others by choice or shared interest (naturists, tech bros). Whilst each chapter could be read in isolation, interesting comparisons are made with other communities throughout the book and the residents interviewed often have interesting or amusing personalities or anecdotes.
As the book progressed, I found I was increasingly being left with more questions than answers - particularly about why community living is very uncommon in the UK. It was interesting to learn that community living is much more widespread in other European countries, however I feel it was a missed opportunity that this was only touched on briefly!
The final chapter does do an excellent job of tying the various ideas together, and finishes by presenting a blueprint of success for community living projects.
Each chapter of the book explores how different communities live together - some out of necessity (disabled adults, rehab centres), and others by choice or shared interest (naturists, tech bros). Whilst each chapter could be read in isolation, interesting comparisons are made with other communities throughout the book and the residents interviewed often have interesting or amusing personalities or anecdotes.
As the book progressed, I found I was increasingly being left with more questions than answers - particularly about why community living is very uncommon in the UK. It was interesting to learn that community living is much more widespread in other European countries, however I feel it was a missed opportunity that this was only touched on briefly!
The final chapter does do an excellent job of tying the various ideas together, and finishes by presenting a blueprint of success for community living projects.
July 16, 2025
Skinner clearly researched this book very thoroughly and visits some very interesting communities, these are the most interesting parts of the book. I don't feel many conclusions are made and I feel the intermittent references to their own future intentional community don't get a proper ending.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews