Ecovillages are intentional communities where groups of individuals live and work collectively to develop more ecologically sustainable and satisfying ways of living. Such communities present living laboratories where scholars from multiple disciplines can analyze the outcomes of deliberate, collaborative efforts to live sustainably. Over the last seven years, I have used participatory action research to document reduced consumption patterns and experienced quality of life at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in rural, northeast Missouri, a community of approximately 40 people on 280 acres of recovering industrial farmland. In this presentation, I will present the results of my data collection and analysis which is currently in press with the Journal of Political Ecology. I will also propose future multidisciplinary collaboration through which the full range of activities undertaken by the members of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage can be documented and analyzed by scholars across the disciplinary spectrum. In the process, I will reach out to potential collaborators across the disciplines who may wish to work with me and the community's educational nonprofit - the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture - to develop and expand our community-based sustainability research program.

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/research/