What intentional communities can teach us about resilience amid global instability

As conflict intensifies in the Middle East, energy markets swing wildly and the cost of living keeps climbing, a pressing question is emerging for anyone who is tied in to the fluctuating energy and food markets: how do we build resilience?

Big political and economic solutions still matter. But they take time. Increasingly, attention is turning closer to home, and to communities themselves.

Among these, intentional communities – once seen as niche – stand out as an increasingly viable option. Intentional communities are groups of people that share land and resources collectively. They can include cohousing and housing cooperatives as well as other projects. These communities do not constitute an escape from the world, but a way of coping with it. In some cases, they are already softening the shocks of global instability.

One of the most visible consequences of conflict in the Middle East is felt in energy bills at home. Disruptions to oil and gas supply chains push up fuel prices. That ripples through everything like transport, food and heating. In the UK, households feel it quickly.

But some intentional communities are less exposed. They have changed how they produce and use energy. At Bridport Cohousing in Dorset, residents share heating systems and generate solar power. On the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, the entire island runs on a community-owned electricity system powered by wind, water and sun.

Of course, these systems don’t make communities immune to wider pressures. But they can cushion the blow by lowering bills and reducing dependence on volatile global markets.

Rising energy prices feed directly into food, housing and everyday costs. For many households, the pressure is relentless. Intentional communities respond differently. They pool resources. Food is often bought in bulk or grown collectively. Meals are shared. Housing is organised cooperatively, which can help to bring down rents and mortgages.

While pooling resources doesn’t eliminate costs, it can spread them. And that makes a difference, especially for those on tight or fixed incomes.

Social resilience in uncertain times

Resilience isn’t just financial. Intentional communities can also help buffer the psychological and social effects of living in times of conflict or uncertainty.

The pandemic offered a glimpse of this. While many people experienced isolation, collaborative housing communities often mobilised quickly because support networks were already in place.

A 2023 study of 18 intentional communities in England and Wales found they were able to quickly build on their existing and well-established social infrastructure. Regular contact, shared decision-making and mutual support helped people cope. In uncertain times, that kind of connection matters. It reduces isolation and makes crises easier to navigate.

One example was an older women’s cohousing group near London who set up online movie and book review clubs, as well as regularly sharing homegrown food from their communal allotment.

Disrupted fuel supplies – as we have seen in the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz – can have cascading effects on agricultural production and food distribution. This can lead to price increases and occasional shortages.

Many intentional communities try to buffer against this by growing their own food. Small-scale farming, permaculture and community gardens are common.

For example, the Redfield community in north Buckinghamshire grow much of their own food, as well as keeping chickens, a small flock of sheep and bees on their 17 acres of land. This increases self-sufficiency, meaning they are less exposed to global disruptions. It also builds skills – knowledge that often spreads beyond the community itself through friends, family and even courses on growing, permaculture and self sufficiency.

None of this makes intentional communities self-contained utopias. They still rely on wider systems. Renewable energy infrastructure requires investment, for example. Skills and resources are uneven, which means that no community is fully insulated from global crises. But that may not be the point.

What sets these communities apart is not independence, but adaptability. They spread risk and diversify how needs are met in terms of energy, food, housing and care. And systems that are more diverse tend to be more resilient.

Intentional communities are, in effect, testing grounds. They show what happens when people reorganise everyday life around cooperation rather than individual consumption. Some of their ideas, like shared ownership, local energy and community food networks are already spreading beyond them into local and national government policy, builders and architects and wider community groups.

Kirsten Stevens-Wood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.