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Abstract: Intentional communities have been present worldwide for many years now, and in Romania they are currently in the formation stage. The present study showcases five such community projects in Romania. By using qualitative research, I have studied the aspects that motivated the members of these communities to be a part of this type of community. The study revealed that the members of intentional communities had different life experiences and internal transformations that made them want to join these communities: health problems, accessing a loan, interests in spirituality, permaculture etc.
Key words: community, intentional community, integration.
1.Introduction
In Romania, in the past few years, there have been a number of projects that aim to form intentional communities, as they exist worldwide and in a quite significant number. A part of these communities can be identified online as well, by accessing web resources such as: Fellowship for Intentional Community (www.ic.org), The Cohousing Network (www.cohousing.org), Ecovillage Network of the Americas (www.ena.ecovillage.org), The Northwest Intentional Communities Association (www.ic.org/NICA) or Global Ecovillage Network (http://gen.ecovillage.org/).
I was interested in studying these community projects because I believe that „this social phenomenon is closely tied to current issues humanity is facing, such as economic, social and environmental distress etc. and it offers the alternative of a lifestyle that, on a shortterm basis decreases a part of these universal problems people all over the world face or even fixes them in the long term" (Mardache, 2015, p. 17).
Regarding these relatively new types of communities, I find the following affirmations made by Zamfir (1989, p.53) to be very relevant: "It is interesting to note that in the past 23 3 there have been searches for alternative lifestyles, even in capitalist countries, as a reaction to the „dominant lifestyle", a term coined by Galtung. (...) These alternative ways of life differ from the dominant lifestyle because individuals refuse to live abiding by capitalist rules and in the structures dictated by the capitalistic social organization, instead attempting to build human communities that follow new life principles. These communities are very similar to the utopic socialist attempts a few centuries back. (...) Alternative lifestyle searches also begin in third world countries, as an essential part of the process of identifying new ways to create social...