Living in closer relationship (enquiry type)

It may be a case of individuals searching for others with similar values and norms, with compatible behaviour, and who may bring different resources or abilities, to share the practical everyday matters of living.

People who want to share living may also be looking for an established place.

The assumption is that the people are coming together to provide for or to contribute towards their better living. This may be shorter term, as in younger individuals sharing flats or houses; or may be longer term, as intentional communities. There is no assumption that people will share business activities or income, though this may develop.

• Features: life, learning; money or resources; high commitment
• Parties mainly relate symmetrically: housemate, member, neighbour; though there may be some asymmetry between established and prospective members.
• Required questions: desired location; type of living arrangement

Example motivations for using this type; people who:

• want someone to share their house
• want to find people to share a house or flat with
• want to start a commune / co-housing project / ecovillage / ashram / etc.
• want to join an existing commune / co-housing project / ecovillage / monastery / etc.

These are simply what occurs to me, serving as an initial pointer to the area. Many other questions are possible. The order in which these are listed is not at all significant.

The questions about people will be similar, whether it is people seeking others or communities seeking people. If people are just looking for established projects, then requirements about people are unlikely to be relevant.

The questions about what is called here the “project” may serve both as requirements of people seeking established projects, and requirements of people specifying what kind of new project they want to set up, and in that case one could consider these to be part of requirement of the relationship.

• Individual or (family) group
  • Dependents
• Age(s) / life stage(s)
• Gender(s)
• Skills / abilities
• Occupations / professions
• Resources available
  • money
  • property

• Location (fixed, or range of possibility)
  • point location
  • jurisdiction
  • bioregion
• Locality type: urban; rural; off-grid wilderness; etc.
• Degree of self-sufficiency (mainly for food)
• Community purpose
• Community ownership and governance
• Bringing proposals

• Type of living arrangement looked for or offered (may be multiple), perhaps listed something like:
  • sharing one dwelling with own space but most or all facilities shared (lodger; flat-share; house-share; commune)
  • semi-independent units
  • fully independent units with optional shared facilities
  • separate mobile or “tiny” units on shared land
• Resources required
• Responsibilities