VILLAGE WORK

If we are genuine about sustainable villages, we need to include work — sustainable work — into the calculation.

The growth of ecological villages will largely depend on work opportunities being available in these villages — a connection between ecology and economy. The challenge to find or create work in villages should not be underestimated and requires a more lateral look at employment. At the same time we need to consider that spending less, and so reducing the urgency to earn, may make work less pressured and more meaningful.

There is more to work than money. Work provides acceptance, social status and satisfaction. Even if we don’t need to work for money, it seems we need to have some sort of meaningful activity. This desire or need is illustrated by the fact that one of the most feared punishments in prisons has been (and maybe still is?) the withdrawal of access to activity.

It is true that some work is best done in a central location. If, for instance, the requirement for raw materials or energy is very high, production close to these resources makes sense. Most manufacturing processes for metals would naturally fall into this category. Such processes are also potentially highly polluting and the necessary control measures are not suited to a village scale.

I consider that we can look at three groups suitable as work in villages:

• Work we should revive to nurture old skills - traditional crafts;
• Work which could be performed as well or better in a small community;
• Work opportunities which are relatively ‘new’ with potential for which a village lifestyle can create advantages.

Traditional Crafts

• Coopering — barrel making was once practised in most settlements. Demand is currently small — but for storage of some products wood may be preferred over steel or plastic.
• Dry-stone walling — although simple in appearance, this is a skilled job. Dry stone walls need no cement and thus can be more easily repaired and stones reused.
• Hedge laying — the value of hedges are newly appreciated, as their multifunctional aspects are understood. They can be fences, habitat and food-producers all at the same time.
• Woodwork — an increasing number of buyers are interested in purchasing quality furniture and other wood products as an investment – the antiques of the future. Precision wood working machines — although not acceptable to some purists — reduce preparation time and increase viability.
• Pottery — pottery in the West is generally considered an art form only. The time may be right for it to be revived as a craft which produces beautiful but also practical every day items.
• Bread making — Western cultures eat bread on most days, yet a surprisingly small number of people know how to make good bread. A relatively small population can support a part-time baker. Potential for innovation and experimentation with local ingredients. Wood-fired oven users can build a good reputation which spreads far.
• Cheesemaking — cheese didn’t always come wrapped and sliced. There are lots of possibilities here.
• Blacksmithing — the skills of a blacksmith are valued again for crafting of new items and repair of old ones.
• Leatherwork — many items which are now made from plastic could again be made from leather.

The few traditional crafts mentioned above are but a small sample of the potential for permanent and part-time work that lies in bringing these skills back. All are again appreciated and have in many areas reached viability. Many of these old skills have been assisted by new technology which lessens the heavy work and often allows for some shortcuts which don’t affect the quality of the end product. Many more traditions of yesteryear deserve investigation and their viability re-assessed: basketry; thatching; bookbinding; candle and paper making are a few.

Work Well Suited to Small Community Location

• Communication/computer — any work related to telephone, fax, or email or computers (tele-commuting/virtual office) can generally be performed anywhere as long as the necessary equipment is available. Performance is not related to location or time. Imagination and the sky are the limits.
  
• Mail order — reasonable proximity to a post office is the only essential. Country post offices are often not as busy as city offices, resulting in shorter queues. Storage of stock may be cheaper (use of farm sheds). Crystal Waters has a thriving mail order gardening products company, The Farm in the USA has MushroomPeople (see earlier newsletter) who sell mushroom spore and shitake mushrooms via mail order, and also a thriving geiger counter business. The internet can be an effective marketing tool for mail order businesses.
  
• Organic food production — villages provide casual labour and access to an outlet for the produce. Availability of common land should offer favourable leasing conditions.
  
• Food processing — cooperation of a number of small growers creates potential to process oversupply, damaged or otherwise not marketable produce. Advantages of larger scale can be achieved by sharing the risks and benefits of value adding.

A strength of a village is a resident labour force which does not necessarily have to be employed on a full time basis. Thus any business or crop which has considerable fluctuations in labour demand should benefit from the availability of extra hands available on an occasional basis. Such work might include collating advertising material for a large mail out (and perhaps more work in supplying resulting orders!), harvesting of crops or pruning of vines. Payment may be possible in goods (part of the crop), as an exchange of labour or in discounts. If we can see the village as an extended family from which to draw support and to which we direct assistance, businesses which could not survive in a conventional business environment can flourish.

Village Work for the Future

Ecovillage tourism — it is fair to assume that any village that can offer peace and quiet, clean air and water, and an interesting setting in this increasingly overdeveloped world will be in demand. The extra angles that ecovillages provide, for instance abundant wildlife, community living, alternative technologies and healthy lifestyles are proving to be particularly popular drawcards. Well organised tourism need not mean loss of privacy. It can result in a considerable contribution towards work of all kinds and create a vital pivot for many small initiatives. The multiplier effect can be amazing.

Education — the connection with tourism would be educational tourism. Creating a destination which offers not just a tan, but the chance to learn new skills. The blending of traditional crafts with an education programme can contribute to a more stable income. The same aspects that make an ecovillage a desirable tourist destination also make it a good place to learn. Every traditional craft mentioned earlier has potential students waiting eagerly to learn.

Consultancy/Green design — Ecovillages are likely to attract residents open to new, environmentally sound examples and experimentation. This should give designers and consultants the opportunity of ongoing learning and add credibility to their recommendations.

Manufacture/sale of clean building materials — as the population becomes more and more aware of the hidden dangers of some of today’s standard building materials, the chance to offer genuine alternatives will increase. Ecovillages may not be well placed to manufacture products for the mass market but the potential size of niche markets should not be underestimated. Products like insulation, paints and glues are going through changes which offer opportunities well suited to village scale production.

Forestry — increases in timber prices, shortages in some timber species and the demand for the ‘real thing’ will contribute to the growth of conservation forestry.

‘Future’ village work has in some places already arrived. It appears village residents don’t lack the ideas or practical skills. The shortcomings seem to be more of the managerial type and in financial backing. Sadly, conventional banks and financial institutions are not known for their pioneering approach or acceptance of ecovillage businesses, although village work is very likely to be at least as secure as other types of investment.

However, managerial skills can be learned. To work within an environment of cooperation does need re-learning. Business in cooperation is far from charity and a cooperative business does not have to adopt a co-op’s legal structure, but it is likely to strengthen its viability by working with other businesses within the community rather than in competition with them. It is this spirit which provides opportunities not normally available to self-employed people working in isolation.

Often, too, residents of ecovillages make a point of supporting each other, even to the extent that they will pay more for a service provided by a resident than for an outsider. Fledgling businesses often benefit from community support and advice.

Multiplier effect
What always amazes me here at Crystal Waters is the multiplier factor which can work so well for the advantage of village communities. An example is the permaculture courses that we run here. Within the duration of a course wages are not only paid to the teachers but also to the cook and kitchen hands, to people who show us their homes and gardens, to the bus driver and to others for various supplementary jobs. We pay rent to the Crystal Waters Community Co-op for the use of the lecture facility, the commercial kitchen and dining area and for sleeping accommodation. We rent some cabin accommodation from private people also. The Co-op employs cleaners and managerial staff. We purchase food and services from within the village whenever we can. I would estimate that two thirds of the gross income stays at Crystal Waters.

It is definitely essential for village designers to consider work opportunities with a considerable multiplier effect as part of the theme of any ecovillage.

Enterprise Centres
Our nearest enterprise centre is located in the small town of Maleny, about twenty eight kilometres from Crystal Waters. It operates from the former Maleny butter factory. Here small businesses gather under one roof but have separate offices or workshops. They share an information display and secretarial service as well as a meeting room and toilets. The sharing in this case is not one that creates an intimate atmosphere but rather one that provides economic benefits. For an enterprise centre to truly create a supportive environment some extra elements would need to be shared. I saw an example that comes closer to reaching the ideal in Switzerland. There, a group of weavers, knitters and spinners were sharing what appeared to be not much more than a large lounge area. What they also shared, and this was more important than the space, was the warmth from a wood stove, the same raw material (wool) and each other’s company. The opportunity to talk and exchange ideas made the performance of some repetitive tasks very entertaining.

When Geoff Young and I worked on the design of the village area at Crystal Waters we included a number of small enterprise centres within the cluster of buildings. Each was theme-centred. We had a crafts cluster, where potters and stonemasons would have shared a space. In another the focus was to be on wood working — furniture, toys, sculptures. The food cluster was to have accommodated the baker, fruit preserver and jam maker. I was looking forward to sharing a small space with an architect, a consultant and a book shop.

But it did not work out this way. I have my own office at home (with telephone, fax, and email), the architect uses an extension to his house, and the book shop has found its own niche as a mail order business. The people with the gardening mail order business built a shed on their lot, the wood worker has a beautiful workshop on his lot, and the paint maker used the space under his house.

It is clear to me now that a new village needs not only roads and water and the things we usually call infrastructure, but these working stations also need to be part of that initial construction.

We need to design enterprise centres which can start off as emergency accommodation or storage, but which are immediately available when work places are required. We only get this chance once. People like myself who have invested into their own work space are unlikely ever to move into the village area. I’m lucky that my work spaces are big enough for four people, and in a way this is a work cluster which functions to my satisfaction. But it does not contribute to the wider village life. It only contributes to what Christopher Alexander (in A Pattern Language) calls ‘scattered work’.