INdividual reflections

In accordance with the application of analytical autoethnography, we recognised the significance of our past and present experiences of civic initiatives in the process of research. We also reflected on our impact on the Association, and conversely the impact of the Association on us. In particular, Fabian notes how past scepticism around ‘sustainable’ housing provision and failures in the private and public sectors drove him to embrace a community-level approach; Hamish elucidates his suspicions around the merits of consensus-based models of decision making as a product of past experiences in intentional communities; and Laura explains how she believes core enthusiasts will be vital to keep the Association alive.

I am a Civil Engineer with a long standing interest in housing and community development. The cost and accessibility of housing, both for purchase and rental, is a critical issue in the UK - my home country. The average house price to earnings ratio has been on the increase for many years, and the media regularly reports on the under-supply of housing in the face of rising demand. In contemporary culture, musicians like Kate Tempest illustrate the struggle faced by young people in trying to find meaning in changing urban areas whilst also playing a part in this process of gentrification:

“My streets have been dug up, repaved; New routes for commuters, the landscape has changed... And so I’m moving on; I’ve got it all to play for; I’ll be the invader in some other neighbourhood”

- Kate Tempest, “Perfect Coffee”, from the album Let Them Eat Chaos

Mixing these housing pressures with a breakdown of community cohesion and increased isolation has led me to believe that systems of living together don’t meet the real needs of humans and communities, and are socially unsustainable.

I have sought out different ways of living over the past 10 years from a technical standpoint, such as building with low-impact materials, and a social perspective, through spending time in intentional communities. I have witnessed the functional and dysfunctional aspects of these communities, and in particular how power imbalances and poor decision making structures can cripple or hollow-out a community. The exercise of power and authority is a key and well-recognised reason for the disbanding of international communities internationally (McLaughli 1984), and I consider myself an opponent of the ‘consensus-based’ model, which I believe is vulnerable to anti-democratic exploitation. I believe that well-structured decision-making processes with clear opportunities for participation and leadership are better for sustaining and nurturing communities.

My role in the Association has been as a critical analyser and leader in some working groups. Through my experience, I’ve sought to promote the development of working structures and a shared vision, as well as leading the early stages of the ‘art’ project. I don’t have a critical need for housing at present, and therefore my reason for involvement is primarily ideological.

So far, I’ve noted how the community has been largely dominated by the voices of a few individuals, and there is a sense that some original members of the group sometimes struggle to retain power. Nevertheless, the group has grown at a rapid rate, and I’ve been impressed by the retention rate of new members and their willingness to actively contribute to projects. Challenges I’ve identified so far include an inability to respond to changing events, poor communication between different working groups, and low levels of accountability. My previous experience of intentional communities has been of people uniting around a fairly specific spiritual or ecological vision. However, through Fargemarka I’ve come to believe that motivating and uniting a more diverse group of people, with different intentions, is certainly possible through carefullyplanned power structures. reason I got involved in Fargemarka Boligprosjekt. I think that the project could be a great opportunity to transmit the things I learned and I value into reality. Also, I feel lucky to analyse the project together with my colleagues from an academic perspective.

My role in the Fargemarka concentrated on various tasks so far. Besides taking over organisational tasks like facilitating meetings I contributed to the ‘structure working group’ and helped to work out an organisational structure for the association. A big variety of smaller tasks like meetings with potential collaboration partners, advertisements, or contributions to other working groups which in the end, together with our reflection meeting for the academic part, summed up in a high working load per week.

After living alone for a couple of years for practical reasons I felt the desire to look out for a shared place. I was annoyed by cooking only for myself and got frustrated by the feeling of emptiness when being at home alone. After all I decided to change my situation and was lucky enough to find four other people – two of them I even did not know before at all – to share a place with. This opened my eyes for a new way of living so that today I barely could imagine living any other way. Whereas I still had my private room and shared other facilities, my girlfriend lived in an even more communal way, with multiple individuals in a single bedroom. Seeing and experiencing this way of living influenced my current values and I questioned the concept of individualism more than ever. Also, my background in urban planning changed my mindset and the ideals. Whilst my interests in my teenager-years were mainly concerned with the newest car-models, for example, today I recognise that this pattern of growth is unsustainable, and am following the developments of the extension of the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and I am delighted about every single new metre of cycle path.

Studying and reading for my studies about current problems on the housing market like the growing supremacy of real estate developers or the decline of social housing gave me a lot of background knowledge. Due to my former working places I had the opportunity to experience both main actors in city development – the private as well as the public sector. Whilst the private showed me how frustrating it is that you are often dependent on investors’ decisions, the public sector showed me the good will but the unwillingness to act or respond rapidly in the face of climate breakdown and crises of loneliness and vulnerability in society. A lot of good concepts and plans that are overflowing from phrases about “sustainable” and “inclusive” development but the actual implementation is mostly missing. The desire to act in a more radical way which challenges existing systems and ways of working is the main

Regarding the way how Fargemarka operates there are positive as well as negative aspects to mention. I was always very positively surprised by the consistency of members that came to the weekly meeting. It was great to see that this diverse group of people had a common goal in mind and spent many Sundays discussing together about the ongoing procedure. This positive diversity led at the same time to difficulties in the way how Fargemarka was operating so far. In my opinion, conflicts came up because of different attitudes and notions against structuring. Whereas some people were advocating for non-hierarchical, flat structures of decision-making, others were used to working in a more formally structured way, as most associations might work. Even if a common vision was formulated in January, it served for the communication with the Municipality and was no guarantee that all members’ values were represented by it. However, through the participation in the Fargemarka project I developed the know-how to help me and others maintain more successful initiatives in the future.

I am an Urban Ecological Planning master student with a Civil and Environmental Engineering background, originally from Hungary. I grew up in the busy streets of Budapest, although I spent several months every year in the village of my grandparents. I moved to Norway in 2009, and have been living here since then. My interest in community living started when I moved to a boarding school, after finishing high school in Norway at the age of 19. Coming from a “big city life” in Budapest, I appreciated the immediate presence of nature in Norway. In the folk school, I studied Yoga and Martial Arts together with other teenagers, living in a strong community with shared meals, tasks and equipment. During this year, I came to realise the value and the strength of the collective. Being a part of something bigger, creating a sense of community and taking responsibility, had a big impact on my life and future choices I have made. Later on, I started travelling around the world, exploring different communities in Europe, India and South America. I have been engaging myself voluntarily in events about sustainable living, where I always re-experience the strong community spirit and the power of collaboration. When it came to my studies, first I studied civil and environmental engineering, and then eventually Urban Ecological Planning, in order to learn more about the bigger picture. The main motivation behind my studies is the creation of sustainable habitats for people, where they can live in harmony with nature and each other.

Since I wish to live in a sustainable community myself, I engage myself in projects both locally and internationally to gain even more experience and knowledge. I became one of the few people that initiated a more structured and organised work with Fargemarka, my drive being both personal and professional. Hoping for a permission for action from the authorities, I established contacts and started a dialog with the Municipality of Trondheim, where I earlier have been active regarding other projects. I see it as fortunate looking at this project both from a personal point of view, as well as from an academic perspective, hoping that it will serve the