“Re-Inventing How We Live in the City”: Well-being and the Los Angeles Ecovillage

Abstract

In this study I examine the ritualistic behavior of participants in the intentional community where I live, the Los Angeles Ecovillage, and how that relates to well-being in a collective sense. Studying the ritualistic behavior within the Los Angeles Ecovillage can offer insight into areas that have been perhaps less explored, as in ritual’s relationship to well-being in intentional communities, particularly in the urban context of this community. Furthermore, although it is a factor, psychological well-being in this context is not limited to an individual’s self-reported quality of mental and physical health—it arguably extends to a collective expression of well-being. In describing social alternative approaches to health and well-being related problems posed by societal barriers to human connection, a paradigm may be formed for how intentional community can support psychological needs.