What is a Micro-Community?
The word Community classically means "a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage… basically a group of people living together in the same place." Modern day communities can be groups formed through myriad activities as well as spread over infinite locations. While this infinitely virtual new world connects people in continuously new and productive ways, there is no substitute for a small and physical living community to nourish our well being on an intimate basis.
Communities share within themselves among members. This can be as simple as a roof, common utilities, grounds and gardens, and as complex as a social or political value system. A Micro-Community can have many forms. The smaller Communes of the 60's and 70's were Micro-Communities. Small Co-operative buildings can be Micro-Communities, as can be small neighborhoods. We think of Micro-Communities as the replacement for the neighborhoods where many of us grew up in a very different time and place last century. The world was not globalized and homogenized, and local communities provided our identity. Our close neighbors were people we enjoyed socially, counted on for companionship and security, and provided a stable base from which to explore and participate in the larger world.
The difference between a random number of individuals, residences, and/or commercial activities and a community of any size is the intention to share some or all of the communities intentions, interests, and resources among it's members. In a Micro-Community one knows ones neighbors and shares responsibilities for maintenance and development as well as leisure and play. As well, ones privacy and need for solitude is respected by neighbors who know and care about each other. Think of any community you know and imagine it scaled down to 3-10 members who see each other on a daily basis. This is a very manageable way to relate to intimate neighborhood.
We have been developing Micro-Communities for the past 45 years in Northern California. Two of these properties, one Urban and one Rural, feature rental units. They are multi-unit properties that have been divided into autonomous living units sharing semi-public spaces and resources, balancing a sense of privacy and neighborhood.
Micro-Communities.com serves several purposes: Facilitating Rental and Purchase opportunities in existing Micro-Community facilities, Linking growing Micro-Communities to each other, and Providing a forum for Small Community Development Strategies and Discussion. Micro-Communities.net and .org will be developed in the future to expand on these themes. We are a no frills organization that believes assets and attention work most meaningfully at the personal level with active managing participation.
