Interesting Social Movements I’d Like to Explore (Partial List)
Wooo! A (longish) List:
- Intentional Communities: This is what is now the name for the large group of communities including 60s hippy style communes, religious retreats, “eco-villages”, and even co-ops such as pika. I recently wrote a large-ish (12 page) paper about the evolution of these in recent American history for 21H.102 and read a lot about them. I think the notions of communalism are powerful and interesting. I hope to explore these living situations in my life. I am touching it a little with pika this summer, but it would be interesting to do something in my adult life. Perhaps try a year or two at one of the more radically communal 60s era communes such as Twin Oaks. I also am intrigued by the notion of “co-housing developments” which are basically like traditional neighborhoods but built and designed for communal structures to be an integral part of peoples lives (be it from sharing laundry facilities and recreational space to having meals as a large group in a communal building). For more info on these things see such sources as http://www.ic.org/ and http://www.cohousing.org/ among others.
- Freeganism: Living a lifestyle based on anti-consumerism by using the (unnecessarily) disposed. I went “dumpster diving” with a group of pikan friends mid-last-week down in Harvard Square (at their suggestion) and was forced to really face the wastefulness of modern society. There were a lot of perfectly good things in even the 3 dumpsters we came across. While I am personally more squeamish about dumpstered (albeit found in sealed packages) food then some people I know, I was still intrigued by even the consumer goods that are needlessly discarded. I came away from the night with a nice heavy glass coffee table top that, once I wipe it down with some bleach and make it some legs, I expect to be a nice addition to my room next year. pika gained a sturdy, metal three-tiered plate stand that, once we ran it through our sterilizer a couple times, was a perfectly nice addition to our dining room. Here is an interesting NYT article about more radical practice of “Freeganism”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Squatters-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
- Couch Surfing: Hospitality networks were also a topic of my history paper, with www.couchsurfing.org in the spotlight for its size and success. I have a number of friends who have both surfed and hosted all with positive experiences to share. I think that the “movement” here opens up tremendous opportunities both for meeting people and open-ended travel, both of which I think would be valuable experiences in today’s multi-national world
- Digital Nomadism: Basically a lifestyle that exploits the fact that in the “modern, wired world” ones ability to be productive in many professions (especially for “information workers”) has very little to do with where you are when you do it. Rather than more traditional office models, or still-traditional “home office” models, these people have chosen to work from wherever they are and deliberately change that: from coffee shops, to hotels, to other people’s living rooms, to (temporarily or permanently operated) spaces around the world designed for people like them. There was an interesting Washington Post article a while back that introduced me to the term: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/25/AR2009072500878.html There are also certainly more recent resources on the notion. I think it, and the greater notion of “location independence” has a certain allure
I am sure there are others … but that is all I can think of right this second. So … now to sleep, then to work at my 9-5 in one location. I may want to explore these things… but with limited exceptions … I ain’t there yer 
~Donald