Grassroots Urban Labs: Experimentation and Radical Planning in Alternative Microsocieties

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine (1) whether ecopolitical intentional communities in cities and towns are a type of grassroots urban laboratory that conduct potentially transformative experiments, and (2) whether such microsocieties can be radical planners of the area at their disposal and even inspire radical plans beyond their borders. The first step of the research design is to define grassroots urban labs and show theoretically that urban ecopolitical intentional communities belong to this category of labs. The second step is to select four ecopolitical communities from Northern Europe and find out if experimentation is a central activity, which would make it reasonable – even on empirical grounds – to reconceptualize the ecopolitical intentional communities as grassroots urban labs. Svartlamon in Trondheim, Norway, is the main case. Its experimentation is studied in detail and compared with the experimental profiles of Fristaden Christiania in Denmark as well as Kommune Niederkaufungen and ZEGG in Germany. The third step builds on the practices of the studied microsocieties to establish a link between experimentation and radical planning. The study shows that experimentation is a central activity in all the studied intentional communities. Both theoretically and empirically, these communities can be regarded as grassroots urban labs. Recycling and environmentally friendly building techniques are tested out. The microsocieties also experiment with decision processes, social organizing and integrative interpersonal relationships. This experimentation builds a platform for collective practices that, if scaled up, would contribute to radical social change.

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