Local Level Politics Gets Even Smaller
It’s a Tuesday evening. In the corner of an open layout kitchen, four people are sitting around a long wooden table fit for an intimate dinner party. No flower vase or bowl of fruit as the chosen centerpiece for the evening, rather a long printed and annotated spreadsheet labeled “Threat Assessment” brings this meeting to focus. Each table guest takes turns speaking; their calm voices do not quite fill the room as much as the golden light creeping in from dusk’s tease and impending autumn’s breeze.
This is what an ordinary Resilience Circle meeting looks like at Bristol Village Cohousing (BVCH) in Bristol, Vermont, according to Jim Mendell, the community’s co-founder and vice president of the Board of Directors of Cohousing USA.
Three hundred five cohousing communities exist in cities, towns, and rural areas across the U.S., but they tend to be hard to spot. According to Trish Becker-Hafnor, executive director of CohoUS, that’s because “cohousing is not an architectural model, it’s a social model.”
According to the association’s website, cohousing is a descriptive term rather than a specific blueprint. Often a cohousing community consists of a group of houses full of members who share similar values, a common house, and a slew of common resources such as gardening tools and a library.
Sketch of Bristol Village Cohousing grounds. Courtesy of Bristol Village Cohousing’s Facebook page.
“We really believe that cohousing communities are like little democracies, little models of what a healthy democracy can look like,” Becker-Hafnor said.
And it is a democracy built on trust.
The Tuesday meeting at hand takes place in Peake House, BVCH’s common house, where community members gather for shared meals, socializing, and planning. The “Threat Assessment” is a ranked list of natural disasters that members have expressed worry about. The Resilience Circle, made up of seven Bristol Village residents, is in charge of deciding how to manage these concerns.
Peake House at Bristol Village Cohousing in Bristol, VT. Courtesy of Bristol Village Cohousing's website.
This is an example of a decentralized form of decision-making called sociocracy. This form of governance differentiates BVCH from condo associations and homeowners associations in which a small handful of board members are typically elected to make the vast majority of decisions on behalf of the rest—even in buildings or associations with hundreds of owners.
While not every cohousing village adheres to sociocracy, the entire movement is based on collective and participatory decision-making, according to Mendell and Becker-Hafnor.
Mendell explained that many of BVCH’s “circles” (what sociocracy calls committees) are dedicated to finding ways to care for the earth. Protecting the village from climate change impacts is a top priority of BVCH and the cohousing movement.
BVCH considers two approaches to protecting its community from climate change: mitigation and adaptation.
Mitigation is any effort to prevent climate change from worsening. At BVCH, this includes solar panels, sharing a single lawn mower, composting, EV charging, and growing fruit trees.
Adaptation involves taking measures to better protect humans from the consequences of climate change. Members of BVCH practice adaptation by supporting each other in times of need, such as during a flood or a pandemic. Beyond that, they work diligently to assess future threats and develop plans to respond to them — tasks delegated to the Resilience Committee.
Through these mitigation and adaptation efforts, BVCH and other cohousing villages across the country have achieved great reductions in their energy usage after installing solar panels and adopting energy efficiency measures.
Why are cohousing villages moving faster on climate resilience than most other communities in the U.S.?
According to Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, founder of Sociocracy for All, it comes down to relationships. In their collective decision-making processes, all cohousing members are expected to adhere to the principles of non-violent communication, which fosters conversations that move towards mutually beneficial outcomes.
Koch-Gonzalez said this dynamic nurtures strong connections and effective change-making.
“Every voice matters, every human being matters…all the different opinions matter…if we have a container with a shared aim and a shared process, we can work this out,” he said.
BVCH’s commitment to sustainability and solidarity in the face of climate change extends beyond biweekly meetings.
According to Fiona Doherty PhD, a professor of social and environmental justice at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, stronger social connectivity makes a community more resilient against climate disruption.
“I think it's really interesting to look at how the places, the community hubs that bolstered social connection, were also pivotal in extreme weather resilience,” she said.
These social connections are a central element of BVCH. Mendell recalled housing non-BVCH community members in Peake House during the Covid-19 lockdown, driving each other to the airport, providing free childcare, and preparing soup for sick members.
Care is baked into BVCH’s model and other cohousing communities operate similarly. But according to Becker-Hafnor, you don’t have to live in cohousing to reap similar benefits of feeling supported by your community.
“We will find resilience and transformation in communities of proximity, no matter what they look like,” Becker-Hafnor said.
Getting to know your neighbors, and talking to them about local decisions in your community is a simple way to broaden the net around you and your family’s safety in times of need, climate or otherwise.
Four people are sitting around a table. The sun sits lower as Resilience Circle adjourns. Members collect their papers and tuck them away before going outside. They split off—one pair goes on a walk and another tends to their bountiful vines of concord grapes on their front patios. BVCH is winding down for the day.
