walking the publicity tightrope

hi friends,

happy may!

publicity is complicated. that’s perhaps news to no one. the internet is a big, opinionated place. it’s also a place of a lot of opportunity. 

that’s something i’ve been thinking about a lot this past week; it’s also something that public-facing ecovillages have to continually reckon with.

during my research visits, i found communities to reach out to based on their online presence. sometimes that was as simple as being listed in the FIC’s database of intentional communities; other times they had a large social media platform. that means almost all of the communities included in my research had some degree of public outreach. 

many more intentional communities exist entirely hidden from the public eye.

but for those who want to promote their lifestyle with a broader audience, there’s a difficult line to walk between preserving privacy and having a public impact.

the tightrope

for most IC residents, there’s an incredibly delicate balance between

1. wanting privacy & seclusion

2. wanting to spread their mission to the public

often, a desire for privacy is a large part of what drives people to live in more rural intentional communities. residents could know their neighbors, and feel a sense of safety and connection in being surrounded by people they know who share their values.

but often, ICs and ecovillages also want their lifestyles to have an impact on the public.

enter visitor programs, workshops, and even social media advertising.

maintaining balance

if you’re an outsider wanting to learn more about intentional communities, the best way to learn/visit is to engage with existing programming. check communities’ websites for when they invite in the public, for workshops, work days, or tours. joining a group of visitors can reduce the community’s overwhelm, offer a more informational visit, and you can make new friends among the other visitors :)

if you’re a community member, setting boundaries with the public is super important. intentional communities that had really loose boundaries with visitors in terms of when, how often, and how many people could come through, tended to be a lot less friendly, more guarded, and felt resentful towards the visitors and the people organizing their programming.

what’s new

life has felt really busy lately… but looking back, i’ve been spending hours every day in our backyard garden for my native plant overhaul project. so it’s a good/self-imposed busy, i suppose. spending lots of time reflecting, getting my hands dirty, and figuring out what i want my next goals to be.

by the way: has anyone been getting an error message when they try to click the ‘read online’ button at the top right? or, has this email ever gone to your spam page? please let me know, i’ve been working with technical support to get that sorted :)

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much love,

jasper