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Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism

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  • Zach Rubin

    (Department of Government, Criminology, and Sociology, Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649, USA)

Abstract

There is great debate over how to measure progress towards ecological sustainability, and a number of approaches deployed by various groups to try and achieve it. One of these is the “ecovillage,” a form of communal living—the primary purpose of which is to enable a reduction in consumption through the collectivization of resources. This paper presents a case study of an ecovillage named Dancing Rabbit, which stands as an example counter to mainstream discourses on progress through the relatively successful approach to ecological sustainability. In the dwellings they have built, their resource consumption patterns, and the diverse attitudes towards technology use that they express, the ecovillagers in this study demonstrate narratives of progress which center an ecological motive over one of profitable innovation. Rather than rely on modernist assumptions of engineering our way to sustainable living through advanced technology or embrace primitivist notions of rejecting it all together, the case study of Dancing Rabbit presents an approach functioning as an alternative to that prevailing dichotomy.

Suggested Citation

  • Zach Rubin, 2019. "Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:21:p:6167-:d:283589
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jason Papenfuss & Eileen Merritt, 2019. "Pedagogical Laboratories: A Case Study of Transformative Sustainability Education in an Ecovillage Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-19, July.
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