I have always had an interest in sustainability.

What especially interests me is how deeply humans have integrated themselves into nite resources such as fossil fuels and coal. It has gotten the point that humans cannot imagine life without their cars, tv dinners or large houses. With resources slowly dwindling, I want to explore possible ways of alternate sustainable living. I want to research not only how eco-villages affect the environment, but how they also affect human psychological and physical health as well. I want to understand booth how current lifestyles are damaging human health and well as possible solutions. Finally, I want to research and draw conclusions as to how viable eco-villages are as a possible long term solution to solving the issue of sustainable living. Walker, Liz, Eco-Village at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2005. Print. This book tells the long and sometimes tedious journey of starting an actual eco-village. The author, Liz Walker, is one of the founders of Eco-Village at Ithaca. This eco-village is one of the most prominent eco-villages in the United States, and Walker details this eco-village from its conception, growth and maturity. Walker begins her tale by explaining the necessity of these sustainable communities. She gives great information about 21st century habits not only causing harm to the earth, but to human physical and psychological health as well (2). Most of Walkers focus, though, is on the Ithaca ecovillage itself. She provides a narrative, an easy to follow story that documents her feelings and opinions as a part of this new pioneering group. Walker does also give useful information as to how specics of an eco-village work, such as farming, co-housing, and community life (45). Walkers specic examples as to how this eco-village works provides me with a great resource. Seeing as I do not live in an eco-village, case studies are absolutely essential to show specically what happens on an eco-village, and then apply these cases to see if they are harmful or benecial to society. Fotopoulos, Takis. Is the eco-village movement a solution or part of the problem? The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, Vol.2, No.3 (June 2006). Print. In this book, Fotopoulos examines eco-villages from a political perspective. He mainly tries to see how eco-villages can seriously t as a democratic policy, if at all. Fotopoulos critically examines how eco-villages are run, their focuses, and how serious they are in their relevance to others. He discusses from an angle that shows the issues of how vastly unpopular eco-villages are in many areas of the United States, and also how their administrative strategies are unappealing and unhelpful in regards to how to run a settlement. He also explains how they only appeal to a certain bracket of people (generally liberal, with tendencies to accept other spiritual practices, all communal and no authority). I nd this source very helpful as I try to nd source for rich counterarguments. I can especially use his information about the unpopularity and irrelevance to try and understand new possible solutions to these problems. Gilman, Robert. The Ecovillage Challenge: The Challenge of Developing a Community Living in Balanced Harmony-with Itself as Well as Nature-is Tough, but Attainable. Living Together Summer 1991: 10. Print.

This article was the birth of the major eco-village movement. Gilman specically addresses the issues with modern, unsustainable lifestyles and lays out possible solutions to these problems. Gillman gives very resourceful and informative information not just about eco-villages as a solution to environmental issues, but also as a way to improve human psychological health. This is the rst article of this kind, as in Gilman was the rst person to create actual outlines and instructions as to how eco-villages were to actually work. Gilman lists specics of how they are to be small scale, encourage lots of human interaction, and self-sustaining. I can use this article as great source material to understand the general principles of how eco-villages should function. I can also make connections between this article and other eco-village sources, to see how much an actual eco-village may deviate from his model. Broadly; however, this source is a great use as I try to dene the specics of what uniquely makes up an eco-village. Miles, Malcom, Urban Utopias: The Built and Social Architectures of Alternative Settlements. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. This book gives a broad overview of utopias and alternative ways of living. Under this broad umbrella of alternative settlements are eco-villages. While Miles spends equal amounts of time discussing other settlements that are Utopias (for example, he discusses cities that use alternative laws and social structures, and he also elaborates on utopian socialism), he does devote two chapters to the practices of eco-villages. Miles provides the framework for eco-villages, in which he discusses the social structure of these settlements, and Miles also discusses practices. Miles discusses different consequences of living a life that is in common and mostly tied to the land. I could also use this as a source to research human development in an eco-village. Especially as Miles is discussing utopias and humans social needs, this book provides an excellent source for how eco-villages contribute to this study. Miles also provides a critical analysis and possible solutions of how eco-villages should behave in relation to external realities (120). I can use this to gather information for counter-arguments. The Global Eco-village Network: Connecting Communities for a Better World. The Global Eco-Village Network, 2012. Accessed November 1, 2012. The GEN is a website that loosely links various eco-villages throughout the world, thereby creating a network of various, international eco-villages. This website does provide information to members, who occasionally convene to discuss issues. The GEN website is not exclusively for members, though. The website is a great resource that broadly explains eco-villages, provides articles about eco-villages, gives educational information, and also lists all the various eco-villages in the GEN throughout the world. The GEN has a focus on educating others about eco-villages, so their website is user friendly for most people who are interesting in exploring eco-villages. I nd this website very useful as a broad overview of eco-villages and what precisely they are doing in the present. A second great resource that this website provides is the list of different ecovillages. I can use this source to nd multiple eco-villages to use for case studies, examples and information.

Walker-Warren, Lee, Aspiring to the Working Class. Communities Fall 2012:17-19. Print. This article was written in Community magazine. Walker-Warren gives a brief yet informative article about working and the jobs of eco-villages. The eco-village of focus for the article is Earthaven Eco-village in North Carolina. This gives me yet another excellent opportunity for source material of various eco-villages. In the article, WalkerWarren discusses many of the issues that have come with a society that relies on fossil fuels. Mainly, the issue is that people are less connected to land, because our lifestyles revolve around getting our necessities (like food, water, etc) from foreign sources. Therefore, people loose the basic skills such as gardening, keeping poultry and other animal food sources, and mostly just the understanding of how to work with the land (17). Walker-Warren suggests that the absence of these activities has led to the obesity epidemic in humans (18). This article is brief, but very informative. I can gather information as to what people specically do and how these activities can change lifestyles for the better.