The Development of Social Forms in Camphill Communities

COMMUNITIES IN TRANSITION Change and Development in the Camphill Communities in Scotland Andrew Plant 2008 Contents Page Foreword …………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 5 The Conceptual Framework …………………………………………………... 8 An Overview ……………………………………………………………………... 10 An Explanation of Terminology ……………………………………………….. 11 Chapter 1: Recent Developments in Camphill Communities 12 Identifying trends ….………………………………………………………….. 12 Community Traffic ……………………………………………………………… 19 Community Boundaries …………………………………………………………… 21 Reasons for the trends ………………………………………………………… 23 Trends – some concluding thoughts ………………………………………….. 32 Chapter 2: Change: Resistance and Integration 33 Types of change ………………………………………………………………… 33 Responses to change …….……………………………………………………... 34 Theories of change …………………………………………………………….. 37 Conclusion …………………………………………………………….…………. 39 Chapter 3: Models and Theories of Development 40 Developmental trajectories ……………………………………………………. 42 Sociocultural evolution: the historical development of social forms … 53 Rudolf Steiner: principles of the historical development of consciousness ….……. 58 The three social principles of Rudolf Steiner …………………………….. 61 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 63 2 Page Chapter 4: The Development of Intentional Communities 64 The concept of development in phases applied to the history of Camphill 66 Models of the development of intentional communities ………………………. 71 Anthroposophical models of the development of organisations and communities ……………………………………………………………………. 80 The development of leadership ……………………………………………… 88 Chapter 5: Developmental Phases of Camphill Communities 93 The pioneer phase ……………………………………………………………. 93 The organisational phase ……………………………………………………. 96 The third phase: change and transformation ……………………………. 101 Chapter 6: Some Insights into the Future Developmental Forms of Camphill Communities 113 Personal development and ethical individualism …………………………. 117 Interpersonal relationships ………………………………………………….. 119 The social, spiritual and cultural life of the communities ………………. 121 How the communities are run: the level of organisational development …………... 124 External engagement – social renewal and global awareness ………... 125 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 130 Bibliography 131 3 FOREWORD I am a member of a large and significant group of people who joined one of the Camphill communities in the late 1970s and early 1980s; people who are now in our 40s and 50s. Many of us have had similar experiences; we joined Camphill when we were relatively young, often after university and after travelling in those heady days following the hippie era. We were full of enthusiasm and idealism and believed that it was possible both to escape the worst of what we did not like in society and to build a better way for people to live together. We joined Camphill, married, began our families and grew into the responsibilities of running house communities, workshops and teams of land workers. We learnt how to produce festival plays, we joined study groups, attended talks and went to lots of meetings. All of these were formative experiences. We were moved by the inspirational example of our elders – the pioneers and those who came shortly after the pioneers – and internalised the ideals and the practices of community that they had created and nurtured. Now, 20 or 30 years later - still in Camphill - we are older and more tired. We have become more realistic about what can and cannot be achieved in community in the 21st century. We have become less idealistic, and perhaps less confident in the philosophical principles that we had believed in so fervently. We have become the new generation of community leaders. We are professional care providers, managers, administrators, teachers, therapists, trainers and co- ordinators. We expect and need more time and space to ourselves and more security about our future when we retire. We are wondering where the next generation that will take our place is going to come from. Our generation has had a particular destiny. We inherited an inspirational alternative community from the pioneers and have ended up with the responsibility of trying to manage a complex and increasingly differentiated organisation. We have been buffeted by a whole series of changes beyond our choosing and control but still believe that what we are doing is immensely worthwhile in many different ways. We are not too sure what the future holds and sometimes we are not too sure where we are meant to be taking all of this. It is from this perspective that the following has been written. It is the particular story of a particular time in the development of a particular community impulse. This perspective will both inform and colour all that follows. 4 INTRODUCTION The Camphill communities in Scotland are the home and workplace of some 1,000 people. The settings are invariably beautiful, the houses characteristically welcoming and there is a feeling of purposeful energy, dedication and commitment that make them exceptional places. They are very special places for all the people who live in them, work in them and are involved in them in one way or another. There is a long and treasured history and a deeply appreciated tradition which still inform the ethos, values and culture of the communities. New ideas and innovative practice are constantly being developed. The magic of community is still alive and well in the Camphill communities in 2008. Yet it would be disingenuous to pretend that there are not also some challenges facing the communities. The overall aim of this work is to attempt to throw light on the situations that the Camphill communities find themselves in at the beginning of the 21st century. More than 60 years after the inception of the Camphill Movement, for reasons that will soon become apparent, there seems to be a feeling of uncertainty as to the future development of the communities. Through this work, I hope to stimulate and encourage a process of reflection and appraisal that will contribute to the process of discerning the way forward into the future. Previously, I had conducted some research into the changes in the experience of the sense of community among people who live and work in the Camphill communities in Scotland. This research was entitled ‘Experiences of Community: A study of the changing experience of community in the Camphill communities in Scotland’ and was completed in February 2007. I was motivated to conduct the research out of the realisation that the communities have had to absorb an unprecedented amount of both internal and external change over a very short period of time, namely the last 10-15 years. I wanted to assess the extent to which this change has affected the experience of community and to gather suggestions as to how to improve this community experience in the future. What I ended up with, among other things, was a number of striking and significant paradoxes. It appeared that those people who had spent longest in the communities had the most intense experience of community, yet felt that it was on the decline. In contrast, those people who had spent less time in the communities, and most of the employees who responded, had a less intense community experience but felt that it was increasing. Many respondents said that they needed more time to themselves and yet many also wanted more community events. Finally, even though the number of employees in the communities is on the increase, many people, especially the employees themselves, felt that employees were not valued and appreciated to the same degree as residential coworkers. However, the dominant theme on the minds of most people who replied to the questionnaire was the quality of interpersonal relationships between community members. The paradox here is that these relationships were seen as both the best and worst aspect of community living. Although the research and this work can be read separately they are in fact complementary and both are different aspects of a common endeavour. This endeavour is the attempt to combine what is known of the current experience in the Camphill communities in Scotland with models and theories of community development in general. The overall aim is to contribute to, and inform, the ongoing discussion in the communities as to the way forward. 5 What I hope to be doing in what follows is to try and make sense of all that has changed in the experience of community and to try and discern some patterns that might serve to bring a semblance of order and purposefulness into what has been a challenging process. This work, as is the case with the research project, is also based primarily on experiences in the Scottish communities. However, it seeks to go further in that it draws on, and makes reference to, experiences in Great Britain and beyond. While the frame of reference is therefore relatively localised and specific the hope is that it may be of more general relevance. I am certainly not in a position to speak on behalf of any other communities than those in Scotland, but nonetheless I am confident that the topics of this work have a more universal application. This work will not be limited to a consideration of the changes that are currently being experienced in the Camphill communities. I will also be looking at the whole question of community as an archetypal social phenomenon. I will therefore be considering the Camphill communities in the wider and more general context of the historical development

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