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Diana Leafe Christian is an author, former editor of '' Communities'' magazine, and nationwide speaker and workshop presenter on starting new

ecovillages An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural envi ...

, on sustainability, on building communities, and on governance by sociocracy. She lives in an

off-grid Off-the-grid or off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. The term "off-the-grid" traditionally refers to not being connected to the electrical g ...

homestead at Earthaven Ecovillage in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, U.S. She has said that living in an intentional community "is the longest, most expensive, personal growth workshop you will ever take." (interview)

Biography

Christian grew up in Los Angeles. She learned to write at what she calls a "real-life school of writing".

Published works

Christian is the author of two books designed to help people who want to join or start their own ecovillages or other

intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

. In ''Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities'', she uses success stories, cautionary tales, and step-by-step advice to cover typical time-frames and costs; the role of founders; getting started as a group; vision documents; power, governance, and decision-making; legal structures; finding and financing land; zoning issues; sustainable site plans; selecting new members; and good process and communication skills for dealing well with conflict. In ''Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community'', she covers researching, visiting, evaluating, and joining communities. During the 1970s and 80s Christian wrote articles for ''New Age'' magazine, ''

Yoga Journal ''Yoga Journal'' is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events ...

'', and ''East West Journal''. She hosted radio interview programs in Hawaii and in northern California. In the early 1990s Christian published a newsletter, ''Growing Community'', about starting new communities. From 1993 to 2007 she was editor of ''Communities'' magazine, a quarterly publication of the nonprofit

Fellowship for Intentional Community The Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC), formerly the Fellowship of Intentional Communities then the Fellowship for Intentional Community, provides publications, referrals, support services, and "sharing opportunities" for a wide range of ...

(FIC), about intentional communities and organized neighborhoods in North America.

Public speaking and workshops

Christian speaks, leads workshops, and shows slide presentations on ecovillages in the US and Canada, including

Ecovillage Training Center The Ecovillage Training Center is a "total immersion school" for sustainability. It is located at The Farm, an intentional community/ecovillage in Summertown, Tennessee, USA. The curricula of the center are "holistic and comprehensivist" and fo ...

at The Farm in Tennessee, Los Angeles Eco-Village, Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon, O.U.R. Ecovillage in British Columbia, and Easton Mountain Center in New York. At a 2015 engagement, she spoke on the application of

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...

design principles to

ecovillage An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural e ...

s' financial, legal, and social aspects, in San Diego. She has led workshops at the North American Cohousing Conference, Twin Oaks Communities Conference, and FIC's Art of Community gathering. Her articles on ecovillages and intentional communities have appeared in publications ranging from ''Mother Earth News'' to Canada's ''This Magazine''. She has been quoted in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', '' Harper's'' magazine, and ''

AARP Magazine ''AARP: The Magazine'' is an American bi-monthly magazine, published by AARP, which focuses on aging-related issues. History and operations In 1958, AARP began publishing a magazine titled ''Modern Maturity.'' ''Modern Maturity'' was later sp ...

'', and has been interviewed by ''Vision'' magazine, New Dimensions Radio,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, and the BBC. From at least as early as 2013, and continuing into 2021, Christian has studied and advised communities on governance and decision-making. She is conversant on sociocracy and

holacracy Holacracy is a method of decentralized management and organizational governance, which claims to distribute authority and decision-making through a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy. Holacracy has ...

and the "N Street Consensus Method", as alternatives to what she terms "consensus with unanimity". She was the keynote speaker at 2013 annual conference of the Swedish Ecovillage Network. In 2020, she is leading online courses in sociocracy.Diana Leafe Christian's website
Offers "10-week online Sociocracy Webinar, Mondays, Feb 8 - Apr 12, 2021, with short watch-ahead videos & handouts, live sessions for practice."
Eventbrite registration
for "Sociocracy for Intentional Communities and Member-Led Groups" (was open as of January 9, 2020).

Books

* 2003, ''Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities'',

New Society Publishers Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. is a Canadian book publishing firm. Douglas & McIntyre was founded by James Douglas and Scott McIntyre in 1971 as an independent publishing company based in Vancouver. Reorganized with new owners in 2008 as D&M P ...

; New Ed edition, , foreword by

Patch Adams Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams (born May 28, 1945) is an American physician, comedian, social activist, clown, and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he also organizes volunteers from around the world to travel to var ...

* 2006
''Vivre autrement: écovillages, communautés et cohabitats''
Les éditions Écosociété, , Préface de Jacques Languirand * 2007, ''Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community '', New Society Publishers,

References

External links

Christian's personal website

Intentional Community Wiki page
on Christian
"Practical Tools to Grow an Intentional Community"
interview on YouTube
"Helping Your Community Thrive: Part 1 with Diana Leafe Christian" (April 9, 2013)
on Youtube, relating to Belfast, Maine cohousing community
"Diana Leafe Christian - Decision-making in communities + intro to Sociocracy 2" (December 6, 2013)
on Youtube {{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Diana Leafe 21st-century American women American environmentalists American women environmentalists Living people People of intentional communities Sustainability advocates Year of birth missing (living people)