Cloughjordan ecovillage occupies a 22 hectare (67 acre) site behind the main street of Cloughjordan, a small village in north Tipperary in the Irish Midlands. It contains a residential area of 55 houses, built between 2009 and 2013, a wild woodlands area with 17,000 native trees, a community farm and a services area with a green enterprise centre, a district heating system fuelled by renewables, polytunnels and a biodiversity education centre and garden. The community currently comprises around 100 adults and 35 children. It is a registered educational NGO and runs courses on climate change, low-carbon living and community resilience. Numerous businesses within the ecovillage and the adjoining village provide livelihoods for residents. The average ecovillage resident has an ecological footprint of 2 global Hectares, less than half of that of the average Irish person.
Cargonomia and Zsámboki Biokert
Cargonomia works as a partner in cooperation with Zsámboki Biokert (collectively as part of The Open Garden Foundation) in organic food distribution and community outreach programming. Zsámboki Biokert is a 3.5 hectare organically certified and practicing biodynamic farm in the village Zsámbok, Hungary which has been in operation since 2010. The farm includes a one-hectare outdoor vegetable production area, a 3000m2 orchard of about 100 heirloom fruit trees, 2000 m2 of unheated polytunnels and three hectares of pastureland. Cargonomia’s volunteers manage a cargo bicycle logistics centre and local food distribution point in Budapest, and work in close cooperation with the farm team. The cooperation consists of a cargo-bike messenger service (Arany Kerek and Golya Futar), a bicycle-building cooperative (Cyclonomia), and volunteers who maintain a community space and donate time regularly on the farm in Zsámbok and at various urban gardening sites in Budapest. The project team members have worked officially as Cargonomia since 2015. They have been collaborating to implement advocacy and educational outreach and DIY workshops focusing on urban sustainability, organic gardening education, bicycle mobility, degrowth in practice, community activism for more liveable cities and self-sufficient living.
The system around us is in crisis, we need to build alternatives
At the heart of our alternative is community. As individuals we flourish in community
Together we unleash creativity and build resilience and create space for exchange
Community means living and working cooperatively We make our decisions together
We develop our power instead of handing it to others
Community means tending land and nature to allow them flourish: Regenerating the soil and ecosystems
Growing healthy food using natural means
Community means moving beyond money as the bond between us. Our motivation is the common good
Money is simply a means required for certain needs
Community means sharing with the wider society. We share our produce
We share what we learn though education and provide support to other communities
We use technologies to serve our goals not vice versa
Our freedom lies in assuming our responsibility for society
We are just tiny seeds of the alternative being born around the world
The values of Karl Polanyi, a native of Budapest, help interpret what we aspire to do
Irish President Michael D. Higgins opens Cloughjordan community amphitheatre, valuing the significance of our community’s endeavours in the great transformation we require.
The extended Cargonomia and Zsámboki Biokert community also aspires to contribute to the great transformation and values the rich insights of Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) who grew up in Budapest and whose seminal work is The Great Transformation (1944).
This photo essay is an outcome of the M2M Solidarity project initiated by the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. The project brought 11 European community-based projects together in groups of two or three with a brief to each to produce an expression of European solidarity. Cargonomia in Hungary and Cloughjordan Ecovillage in Ireland was one of the pairings and this photo essay is their joint expression of European solidarity, inspired by the rich insights of Budapest native Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) and particularly his classic work The Great Transformation (1944). Two podcasts Imagining transformation: Polányi’s insights for sustainability and Rebels with a cause: practicing decommodification and an info-graphic have also been produced by the Cargonomia-Cloughjordan collaboration.
Cloughjordan Photography by: Eoin Campbell JustMultimedia.com
Cargonomia Photography by: Noémi Bulecza
Credits:
Cloughjordan Photography by: Eoin Campbell JustMultimedia.com Cargonomia Photography by: Noémi Bulecza