Diggers and Dreamers

Diggers and Dreamers is a group that promotes intentional communities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

History

Diggers and Dreamers started out as a book based directory, first published in 1989 as a resource for information, issues, and ideas about intentional communities and communal living in the UK. The project was an offshoot of the Communes Network, a loose organisation that was established at a meeting on 15–16 February 1975 organised by the Communes Movement,^[1] which itself was started in 1968 by Selene Community,^[1] and which had achieved a distribution of 3000 copies of its journal, Communes: Journal of the Communes Movement, in March 1971.^[2]

The Guide to Communal Living (and from 1999 accompanying website) focusses on all aspects of communal living. Alongside the journal there is a directory of communal groups. More recently Diggers and Dreamers have published a number of book reviews, conference presentations and books other than the Guide to Communal Living.

Themes

Over the years the publication has covered a wide variety of topics connected with communal living and has featured articles by both those living communally and those studying it. The themes covered by articles include:

• Decision-making
• Manual labour
• Childcare
• Income pooling
• Developmental communalism
• Developing Cohousing in the UK
• Why Feminism needs Utopianism
• Voluntary Simplicity
• Low Impact Development
• Degrowth
• The value of art in community
• Research and development for Utopia

See also

• Radical Routes
• Fellowship for Intentional Community
• Communities Directory