Sustainability Science (2022) 17:1235–1246

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01162-7

SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Alternatives to Sustainable Development: What can we Learn from the Pluriverse

in Practice?

How ecovillages work: more‑than‑human understandings

of rentabilidad in Mexican ecovillages
Olea Morris1

Received: 19 July 2021 / Accepted: 17 April 2022 / Published online: 20 June 2022
© The Author(s) 2022

Abstract
This article highlights the emergence of intentional communities known as ecovillages (ecoaldeas) in Mexico, exploring
how humans seek to design sustainable futures in part by re-making rural livelihoods. Ecovillages are inherently specula-
tive ventures, or as Burke and Arjona (2013) note, laboratories for alternative political ecologies, inviting—and indeed,
necessitating—the reimagination of human lives with greater consideration for the natural world. In this sense, such com-
munities might be understood as “exilic spaces” (O’Hearn and Grubačić 2016), in that they seek to build autonomous and
self-sustaining agricultural, social, and economic systems while also reflecting a stance of resistance to neoliberal capitalist
structures. At the same time, communities may also remain dependent on connections to broader regional or global markets
in diverse and interconnected ways. Understanding ecovillages as diverse and emergent “worldings” (de la Cadena and Blaser
2018), I ask how these experimental social ventures reckon with their connections to the very systems they are positioned
against. To trace out how communities negotiate this fragile space, this article is concerned with how ecovillagers spend
their time at work—particularly when it comes to managing relationships with and between more-than-human beings. Draw-
ing on participant observation with ecovillagers and more-than-human others they work with, I explore how the concept of
“rentabilidad” (profitability) is differently constructed. To this end, I highlight ethnographic examples where rentabilidad
is purposefully reconceptualized with more-than-human lives in mind; such a shift, I suggest, hinges on ecovillagers’ indi-
vidualized relations with the beings they (imagine themselves) to care for.

Keywords Ecovillages · Degrowth · More-than-human · Mexico

Introduction development from economic growth (Escobar 2015; Acosta

and Cajas-Guijarro 2020) and to instead seek out alterna-
In the wake of unprecedented ecological loss and social and tives. To this end, conceptual engagement with the pluriv-
political upheaval in recent years, the fragile relationships erse—a world with the ontological capacity for multiple
that sustain human experience on this planet are perhaps “worlds” (de la Cadena and Blaser 2018)—gestures to the
more visible now than ever before. With the understanding possibility of a diverse “matrix of alternatives” (or alterna-
that these unfolding crises are “inseparable from the model tively, a “postdevelopment rainbow”), rather than a unilinear
of social life” made dominant by neoliberal capitalism and approach to sustainable development (Demaria and Kothari
globalization (Escobar 2015:452), postdevelopment dis- 2017; Akbulut et al. 2022). Ethnographic attention to how
course has increasingly pointed to the need for decoupling grassroots and localized alternatives to development are
shaped by their geographic, historical, social, and epistemic
contexts (Escobar 2015:456) has been instructive, gesturing
Handled by Julien-François Gerber, The Hague, Netherlands.
to the ways that “communities, societies, and landscapes,
* Olea Morris especially those dominated by industrial capitalism,” might
[email protected] be re-imagined, unmade, or rebuilt (Brightman and Lewis
1 2017:2). By the same token, I argue, engagement with the
Central European University, Quellenstraße 51‑55,
1100 Vienna, Austria pluriverse also entails revisiting the logical premises that

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have underpinned past approaches to sustainable devel- factors that these community founders are citing—lending
opment to develop a more capacious sensibility of “what policies of financial institutions, property values, and zoning
works” in practice. regulations—can be linked directly to capitalist processes
In keeping with the theme of this Special Feature on the and dynamics” (293). These considerations reveal the ways
“Pluriverse in Practice” (Akbulut et al. 2022), this article that the performance of alternative livelihoods requires sub-
discusses ecovillage communities (ecoaldeas) in Mexico to stantial negotiation between sustainable visions and context
explore how different communities carve out spaces of pos- or circumstance.
sibility and flourish from within contexts shaped by global Understanding ecovillages as kinds of “exilic spaces,”
flows of extractive capitalism. Situated at the convergence or spaces on the margins of social and economic life “in
of several transition discourses, including co-housing, com- which people attempt to escape from capitalist relations
mons thinking, and degrowth (Lockyer 2017), ecovillages and processes” (O’Hearn and Grubačić 2016:148), I ask
are broadly defined as communities that work to consciously how ecovillage communities renegotiate their relationships
pursue economic, social, and ecological sustainability to the broader social and economic systems in which they
(Jackson 1998) through the “harmless integration of human are entangled (Dawson 2013). Drawing on ethnographic
activities into the environment in a way…[that] is able to research conducted in two ecovillage communities in two
continue into the indefinite future” (Kasper 2008). As López states in Mexico, I call attention to instances in which inter-
and Silva Prada (2015) observe, ecovillages seek to respond locutors engaged with the concept of rentabilidad (prof-
to social issues understood to stem from “the environmental itability) in the contexts of the regenerative agricultural
crisis and/or the loss of meaning of the development model systems and community spaces they construct. Building
of contemporary capitalism,” (2) seeking to enact change on understandings of relational value (Saxena et al. 2018;
by living it. Ecovillages do not follow a particular blue- West et al. 2018), I problematize the normative associations
print or plan, but instead co-construct community values between profitability on the one hand and the perceived via-
and practices in place (Meijering et al. 2007; Dawson 2013; bility of alternative community models on the other. Undo-
Dias et al. 2017). These practices might include collectively ing these connections involves attending to the socially con-
growing food without pesticides or conventional fertilizers, structed dimensions of profitability, and the different ways
building homes and structures with locally sourced, renew- that profit—understood here as the return of advantages or
able materials (“natural building”), or reducing energy benefits relative to the time, labor, attention, or resources
consumption (i.e. “off-grid” or carbon–neutral lifestyles) invested—is reconfigured, particularly in relation to more-
(e.g. Kirby 2003; Meijering et al. 2007; Litfin 2012, 2014; than-human lives.
Pires and Lima 2013). As such, the ecovillage model has This article is structured as follows. I first develop a theo-
inspired academic attention to how it might be “scaled up” retical understanding of rentabilidad through a more-than-
or imported to new contexts (Litfin 2009; LeVasseur 2013; human lens, explaining how this idea complicates existing
Singh et al. 2019; Temesgen 2020). approaches to economic sustainability. I then trace this
The question posed in the title of this article—“How argument through the particular contexts in which ecovil-
do ecovillages work?”—is directed towards this ostensible lage communities in Mexico are situated, identifying three
tension between autonomy and “radical interdependence” ways in which relationships with more-than-human others
(Escobar 2018), asking how ecovillage residents pursue influence the ways that ecovillages “work” (construed both
alternative livelihoods while negotiating interconnectivi- as concrete practices, as well as their perceived functional-
ties with the same broader economic and social systems ity or viability). Finally, I relate these examples back to the
they might be positioned against. Ecovillages are far from broader discussion of the pluriverse-in-practice, touching on
being “islands of sustainability” (Andreas 2013; LeVas- how ecovillage communities collectively reframe practices
seur 2013), but rather remain deeply interdependent with in relation to broader values.
the world beyond their boundaries, both socially and eco-
nomically (Dawson 2006; Burke and Arjona 2013; Farkas
2017); as such, residents “simultaneously live in the ecovil- More‑than‑human understandings
lage and the larger society” (Ergas 2010:33). As Jonathan of rentabilidad
Dawson, former president of the Global Ecovillage Network
(GEN), has observed, “ecovillage enterprises, in common While economic sustainability has long been enshrined as a
with all others in the capitalist economy, depend on a cul- key dimension of sustainable development discourse (Purvis
ture of consumerism that far outstrips the meeting of basic et al. 2019; Spangenberg 2005; Zhong et al. 2021), schol-
needs” (2006:56–57). Moreover, Baker (2013) suggests that ars have highlighted how a persistent conceptual ambiguity
these lingering connections to broader systems can work to has complicated attempts at putting it into practice (Nor-
complicate or ultimately sunder communities: “after all, the ton and Toman 1997; Hinton 2020). Owing partly to this

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undertheorization, conventional economic logic continues (as perceived by community residents themselves). Although
to underpin the way sustainability is framed: in particu- profit is normatively associated with capital, conversations
lar, the assumption that markets are inherently driven by with ecovillage residents revealed the ways that this concept
profitable growth (Hinton 2020). As Spangenberg (2005) was reconfigured to account for ecological and social, as
notes, “continuous and indefinitely (or at least long-term) well as economic, abundance (Jackson 1998). This analyti-
sustained growth is—often implicitly—assumed to be part cal focus was particularly inspired by a conversation with
of sustainable development of the economy” in mainstream an ecovillage resident named Katrina, where she described
policy debates (49). This framing has a distinct influence on her vision for the future of her community: “the point is to
the way sustainable development is pursued. Based on the be autónoma (autonomous). That’s the idea—liberty. Not to
unquestioned understanding that “economic vitality” is a just be sustentable (sustainable), or autosustentable (self-
necessary precondition for increasing living standards or fos- sustainable), like making money through workshops, eating
tering social improvements (Purvis et al. 2019; Rainey et al. our own food…but a project also has to be rentable (profit-
2003; Spangenberg 2005), economic growth (and profit, as able).” When encouraged to explain further, I was surprised
an analog) has come to be framed as tools for furthering both by her answer: “not just making money, of course, but also
social and ecological sustainability objectives (Rainey et al. politically rentable… socially rentable. To help to make
2003). The understanding that “people, planet, and profit” things better, but to still live simply.” This exchange gestured
are commensurate and mutually achievable objectives has to the subtle ways that seemingly neutral economic language
been further reproduced through the emergence so-called could be reframed and suffused with new meaning to align
“hybrid organizations” or “social enterprises” (SEs): busi- with community objectives. Neither of the communities
ness models that have sought to realign “profit with social discussed here could be considered conventionally “profit-
impact” and environmental responsibility (Bocken and Short able” (in the sense of earning surplus capital from selling
2016; Alberti and Garrido 2017). agricultural products, holding workshops, or hosting visi-
The unexamined premise that profitable growth is a nec- tors). Instead, Katrina’s reflection suggested the possibility
essary condition for achieving sustainability outcomes is for fundamentally remaking the rubric by which community
problematic for several reasons. First, scholars have pointed successes were evaluated: not by “profit” as a standardized
out that enterprises oriented towards profit maximization unit of value, but rather localized and collectively negotiated
and capital accumulation simultaneously drive environmen- sensibilities of rentabilidad.
tal damage and social inequality alongside economic growth In focusing on these qualitative shades of rentabilidad,
(Parrique et al. 2019; Hinton 2020), revealing the inherent I engage with ongoing streams of discourse from environ-
paradoxes of using the former in the service of addressing mental studies, anthropology, and ecological economics that
the latter. Second, scholars have increasingly demonstrated have sought to understand how alternative values are rela-
how conceptions of value encoded in measures of profit are tionally constituted between humans and more-than-human
socially constructed and relational (Graeber 2001; Retsikas others (c.f. Chan et al. 2018; Saxena et al. 2018; Himes and
and Marsden 2018). For this reason, reframing profit as an Muraca 2018; West et al. 2018). As Saxena et al. (2018)
objective that can be attained through the adoption of more argue, greater sensitivity to more-than-human actors in
sustainable (or what are increasingly described as “circu- qualitative research has revealed the complex ways humans
lar”) practices still fails to offer an explicit critique of the inscribe meaning on more-than-human bodies through
“value-creation logic” (Schaltegger et al. 2016) that under- practices of labor and care, and how these relationships co-
lies these conventional understandings of what profit is or constitute one another (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010; Krzy-
how it might be attained (Jackson 2009). Finally, scholars woszynska 2016; van Dooren et al. 2016). Such an approach
have increasingly called attention to possibilities for “living considers more-than-human beings as creative, agential
well” that do not hinge on profit or economic growth, exam- forces, or rather “as ends in themselves, and not just means
ining diverse expressions of communitarian and grassroots to human ends” (Latour 1998, cited in Kasper 2008:12).
approaches to sustainable livelihoods (Kothari 2014; Kothari This relational value perspective emphasizes ways that
et al. 2014), or speculating how a downshift to not-for-profit humans make meaning and assign value to their environment
business models could facilitate postgrowth transitions (Hin- and other living beings in ways that extend beyond instru-
ton 2020). In short, conflating profitability with viability mentality (Lukka 1990; Haraway 2016; Himes and Muraca
consigns us to a narrow interpretation of “what works” and 2018), understandings which are not only forged through
what does not, limiting the scope of alternative socioeco- “labor and productive relations” (Saxena et al. 2018:56), but
nomic models considered. rather are “reflective and expressive of care, identity, belong-
Though profitability is a contested term (Child 1998), ing and responsibility, and congruent with notions of what it
I use it here to refer to a constellation of labor, value, and means to live a ‘good life’ (West et al. 2018:35). Engagement
time, expended in such a way that it produces a gainful yield with different practices of alternative agriculture—including

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biodynamic agriculture, permaculture, and agroecology— pooled and redistributed to particular members as needed.
becomes ways of “enacting contestations in the fields”, and A beekeeper in Aldea Ceiba, for instance, might keep the
in doing so performs “alternative rural realit[ies] of mutu- proceeds from holding paid workshops on bee care, while
alism and abundance” (Münster 2018). Turning attention honey sales might be directed back to the community.
to the ways that ecovillage residents design and maintain The second community, Rancho Bosque, lies adjacent to a
networks of multispecies relationships reflects underlying protected cloud forest on the outskirts of a large urban center
values of particular communities, but also how these val- in Veracruz and comprises several pastures and shade-grown
ues are negotiated by residents through their daily practices orchard spaces as well as patches of native forest. The com-
(Krzywoszynska 2016; de la Bellacasa 2017). munity ranges in size from five to twenty people at any one
time, composed of permanent residents, apprentices who
live in the community for several years as part of a live-
Methodology and research sites in educational program, and foreign volunteers. Rancho
Bosque predominantly practices biodynamic agriculture, a
This research draws on participant observation and ethno- form of organic agriculture with elements of spirituality and
graphic fieldwork carried out over approximately 13 months folk practices that has roots in Central Europe (Paull 2011).
in ecovillages throughout Mexico between June 2018 and A printed vinyl sign, hung at the entrance to the commu-
November 2019. For purposes of salient comparison, I focus nity’s land, summarizes the key message the founders hoped
on two communities: Aldea Ceiba in the state of Yucatán, to impart to the young apprentices and visiting students:
and Rancho Bosque Rancho Escuela (Rancho Bosque Ranch
“You can and should be proud, to practice the most
School) in Veracruz. 1 I spent approximately 4 months
important profession that exists. To work the land, to
divided into two periods during different seasons, serving
raise animals, to take care of the environment, the for-
as a volunteer in both communities. This arrangement of
est, the soil, the water. Without you, without agricul-
working (5–6 h per day) in exchange for accommodation
ture, there would be no known development, culture
allowed me to live in residence with both communities and
would not have developed, and without this no known
develop familiarity with interlocutors. This role also allowed
civilization. Be proud of yourselves!”
me to work with and alongside residents in roles that ranged
from preparing communal meals, harvesting crops, clean- The ideological emphasis on self-sufficiency is connected
ing stables, or tending to compost piles alongside different deeply to their work with livestock, although they also main-
residents. Moving between communities allowed me to be tain gardens, grow shade-grown coffee and macadamias, and
present for important community events, or to observe dif- have a small dairy and bakery. Although occasionally ani-
ferences in priorities and work practices at different times mals are sold to neighbors or other local farmers, the pri-
of the year. mary focus of caring for livestock is in developing practical
Aldea Ceiba community was founded in 2015 outside education programs for young “apprentices” who live on site
of a small community in central Yucatán by a group of over the course of several years to learn how to manage their
approximately 9 residents (known as semillas, or “seeds,”) own holistic agriculture projects.
and a continuously rotating community of volunteers, visi- On the surface, these communities differ substantially
tors and friends. The tropical climate permits the cultivation from one another—located in distinct ecological and geo-
of diverse agroforestry systems, informed by regenerative graphic contexts, they have different and at times contradic-
agricultural practices such as permaculture or syntropic agri- tory approaches to issues ranging from agriculture to styles
culture, an approach to cultivating agroforestry systems by of conflict resolution. At the same time, both communities
mimicking forest succession cycles (Andrade et al. 2020). share similar concerns for the future livability of the planet
The community describes itself as a center for the “inter- brought about by consumption-driven capitalism, pollution,
change of knowledges,” (intercambio de saberes), and in deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Both communities
addition to experimenting with local agricultural techniques practice forms of subsistence organic agriculture, rely on
and eco-technologies (including rocket stoves, bike-powered forms of renewable energy (solar and biogas), build homes
appliances, and solar panels), they also held workshops and and communal spaces with local or biodegradable materials,
community gatherings (tertulios) on topics such as native and seek to reduce or re-localize consumption to the greatest
bee conservation or recuperating traditional milpa farming extent possible.
systems. Residents often earn an income from their own pro- I carried out in-depth participant observation and semi-
jects within the community, although incomes are partially structured interviews (~ 79) with residents, visitors and
volunteers, asking participants to reflect on their roles in
1
Pseudonyms are used for both communities, and some identifying the community and how they went about their daily rou-
details are deliberately obscured. tines. While residing in these communities, I attended and

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documented evening lectures, cultural events, and work- policy in Mexico in the last decades: namely, the conversion
shops on topics such as soil care, bee care and holistic veteri- of “informal” smallholder economies into an agricultural
nary practice. In particular, I sought out opportunities where sector through industrialization and privatization.
human residents interfaced with the animals, plants, insects, Self-sufficiency and autonomy have been common con-
and other species present in their communities by following ceptual threads of the social and environmental movements
patterns of daily work: helping with tasks such as check- premised on resistance to these policy developments. Car-
ing beehives, cleaning stables, cultivating and maintaining ruthers (1996, 1997) discusses how indigenous and envi-
gardens, or planning the rotation of crops and livestock in ronmentalist movements became linked in their mutual
the ecovillage landscapes, providing rich opportunities for resistance to structural policies that prioritized economic
understanding how residents conceptualized value in rela- development at great cost to the socioeconomically vulner-
tion to their work with more-than-human others.2 Fieldwork able and the environment. This has perhaps been most nota-
notes and informal encounters and conversations also con- bly exemplified by the mobilization of the Zapatista Army
tribute to the understandings discussed in this article. of National Liberation (EZLN), an autonomous movement
that emphasized indigenous rights and food sovereignty the
day that NAFTA came into effect (Naylor 2012; Hernández
Resistance in place: situating Mexican et al. 2020). As Barkin (2006) notes, these developments
ecovillages produced a range of grassroots alternative development
models, with more communities “forging alternatives that
The emergence and popularization of the ecovillage com- allow them greater autonomy” and “experimenting with new
munity model in Mexico must be understood in relation productive combinations that allow them to strengthen their
to increasingly neoliberal and industrialized approaches communities” (137). In such a way, traditional practices of
to rural development in Mexico over the last century. Fol- agriculture, landscape management, and species care have
lowing the Mexican Revolution of 1917, over one-half of also become forms of resistance in and of themselves, as
Mexico’s arable land was redistributed to indigenous com- alliances between indigenous rights and environmentalist
munities and groups of smallholders, who were given usu- groups both “center on the effort to preserve and defend
fruct rights to communally held lands known as ejidos.3 traditional ecological knowledge” (Carruthers 1997:259).
Over time, however, smallholder agriculture came to be Communities like Rancho Bosque and Aldea Ceiba locate
compared disfavorably to the “efficient, large-scale mod- their broader community objectives at the intersection of
ern farms” that were ushered in by the Green Revolution these discursive threads of resistance, albeit in different
and spending on rural infrastructure increased greatly in ways. While founders at Rancho Bosque hoped to combat
the early 1940s (de Janvry 1981; Frye 1994). State support, the decline of smallholder agriculture by providing training
subsidies, and “high-yield seeds” were increasingly directed and resources to local youth interested in managing their
to these larger agricultural enterprises (de Janvry 1981:124) own holistic farms and ranches, Aldea Ceiba residents col-
in an effort to spur economic development through exports. laborated closely with Maya neighbors in maintaining the
In 1992, an amendment to the Mexican constitution permit- health and biodiversity in their agricultural systems.
ted the private sale of ejidal lands and helped pave the way Similar to other ecovillage projects that have been docu-
for the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agree- mented elsewhere, many residents come from largely upper-
ment (NAFTA) in 1994, effectively ending state support for middle class and urban environments (Farkas 2017). Long-
the ejido (Sonnenfeld 1992; Frye 1994; Yetman 2000; Per- term visitors and volunteers to Rancho Bosque and Aldea
ramond 2005). Each of these developments reflects pieces Ceiba are a mix of foreign nationals from North America,
of a common central narrative shaping rural development Europe, and Latin America as well as Mexican nationals
(largely from other urban centers). The founder of the Ran-
2
Morris (2022, in press) provides further discussion of multispecies cho Bosque community was raised in Europe, while Aldea
ethnographic approaches employed elsewhere in the broader research Ceiba was composed largely of a group from Mexico City
on which this article is based. and surrounding environs. Foreign ecovillage founders bene-
3
Though ejido has been used as shorthand to describe all commu- fitted from access to foreign passports, pensions, and health-
nally held lands in Mexico, two types of arrangements are subsumed care plans, while enjoying a relatively lower cost of living
under this label. While ejidos could be applied for by many sorts of
communities or small groups, comunidades were particularly set on the strength of foreign currencies. Although foreigners
aside for indigenous communities who were able to demonstrate an are not able to own ejido land outright, informal contractual
ancestral connection to the land in question. The conflation of the two and/or good faith agreements with Mexican residents extend
systems into one categorical label is due in part to effects of coloni- the circle of de facto stakeholders in the community. These
alism; for instance, indigenous communities applied for ejido rights
because of a lack of documentation of their indigenous status (c.f. arrangements rely heavily on trust amongst community
Stephen 1994).

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members, and can be tenuous or unstable.4 At times, these relative lack of a local market for ecologically produced
differences were recognized and explicitly worked against. (and consequently, more expensive) specialty products is
In Aldea Ceiba, for example, the amount of requested dona- in part a function of the location in rural areas in which
tions for volunteers from Mexico and other Latin American ecovillage communities tend to be located, which are by and
countries was lowered relative to that of other foreign volun- large, areas where local consumers are unlikely to be able to
teers (largely composed of travelers from elsewhere in North afford them, complicating attempts at integration into local
America or Europe) due to recognition of the socioeconomic markets.
imbalance between visitors and volunteers from differing While caring for more-than-human others is and has
backgrounds. long been a part of rural livelihoods, ecovillage communi-
Despite the fact that community residents are oriented ties differ from other kinds of traditional or agrarian com-
towards the goal of self-sufficiency, both communities munities in two primary ways. First, new ecovillages are
retain dependencies on the “outside world” to support their largely products of intentional design, and as such seek to
community’s activities. Both Rancho Bosque and Aldea self-consciously organize social and ecological relationships
Ceiba rely heavily on the labor of volunteers and visitors in harmonious ways. Agroecological systems are often pre-
in caring for animals, managing cultivated areas, leading meditatively designed with the goal of creating “self-sustain-
workshops or preparing artistic or cultural events, cooking ing” systems, which are maintained in ways that are seen to
communal meals, or other key tasks. Both communities mimic “ecological” or “natural” processes. Second, many
advertise their projects on online portals such as WWOOF ecovillage residents (especially those from largely urban
(Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) or Workaway environments) have little or no prior practical experience in
in search of volunteers, many of whom are foreign travel- agriculture or the ecological contexts in which these com-
ers with interests in environmental or social activism and/ munities are founded. As such, the process of maintaining
or sustainable agriculture (what Velázquez Castro 2018 agroecosystems implies a highly experimental and collabo-
calls “voluntourists''). Many foreign volunteers contribute rative approach in their design, relying on relationships with
labor in exchange for modest accommodation and meals, local experts, practitioners, and neighboring communities.
sometimes contributing a nominal fee for expenses incurred In this way, ecovillage residents are not necessarily novel in
(for example, additional food or transportation). Addition- their approach to agriculture, but rather exhibit novel ways
ally, several residents in Rancho Bosque and Aldea Ceiba of relating to or engaging with forms of indigenous or tradi-
from Mexico received funds from a new nation-wide social tional land management practices and agricultural strategies
program known as Jóvenes Construyendo El Futuro (Youth in the service of constructing new livelihoods.
Building the Future), which allows young people (18–29) The importance of these social relationships became
who are not working or studying to ally themselves to par- apparent in Aldea Ceiba’s response to the dual crises affect-
ticipate in various forms of employment training with differ- ing communities in Yucatán in early 2020: devastating flood-
ent companies or civil society organizations. Together, each ing caused by tropical storm San Cristóbal, and the COVID-
of these sources of funding and income was instrumental 19 pandemic both damaged crops and prevented workers
to supporting each community’s fluctuating population of from taking up regular means of employment, largely in the
volunteers and visitors, and was an important supplement tourism sector, in nearby coastal cities. In response, two resi-
to subsistence-oriented agricultural practices. dents of the Aldea Ceiba community founded an initiative to
Ecovillage residents in both communities rely heavily on provide resources for local families to cultivate traditional
their cultivation of various plants, animals, and insects, both home gardens for self-consumption, funded in large part
for self-consumption and for outside sale. Rancho Bosque from donations of past volunteers solicited through online
sells a variety of products in a small storefront at the edge of social networks, as well as regional organizations with
their property and at local markets in the nearby capital of whom they had previously collaborated. The project, which
Xalapa; these include value-added products like cheese and aims to address economic and food insecurity, draws on the
dairy products or baked pastries, as well as specialty staples already-embedded relationships ecovillage residents have
such as coffee, nuts, or honey. At Aldea Ceiba, different built within neighboring communities by pooling resources
kinds of honey as well as specialty products like medicinal to enable local families to develop home-scale cultivation
tinctures and locally produced handicrafts were sold in a of traditional crops. In the words of the project leaders, “we
small shop located on site, or distributed to specialty shops have woven intercultural relationships based on respect
in nearby cities or through residents’ social networks. The and cooperation with various families, which today allows
us to have the conditions to develop this new project that
4 links food sovereignty, the regeneration of community rela-
In two other communities consulted during this research period,
disagreements over land ownership led to the departures of founding tions, along with the work of the land and the flourishing
members.

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of women as leaders for the cultural transformation that we to bring us closer to our dreams?” The list of key principles
need around the world today.” below urged residents to reconsider their consumption pat-
In the sections that follow, I build on this contextual- terns: “don’t be blackmailed (chantajeando) by the pressure
ization by highlighting the ways that ecovillage residents to buy a certain type of clothes, a phone, a drink, or some
construct and negotiate understandings of value in relation junk food…the true happiness will be had by the one who
to their work with more-than-human others. Using rentabi- has produced the items not necessary for your life.”
lidad as an orienting concept to capture processes of value While not all community members share the same ascetic
construction, I explore how residents of Aldea Ceiba and zeal (and occasionally indulge in said “junk food” or alco-
Rancho Bosque mediate and refine community goals in rela- hol purchased on supply runs in town), orientation towards
tion to more-than-human entities through three dimensions: the broader goal of self-sufficiency has still inspired some
alternative relations of scale, alternative values, and alterna- community-wide changes in consumption patterns. Manu,
tive temporalities. a longtime resident of Aldea Ceiba, reflected how the com-
munity’s dietary patterns had shifted in relation to the chal-
lenges of growing particular crops (leafy greens or root
Alternative relations of scale crops in particular) in the nutrient-poor soils of the Yucatec
forest. “Now we experiment a lot more with native seeds
One of the ways in which ecovillage residents renegoti- and plants, because that’s what we have—the things we’re
ate understandings of profitability is by reconfiguring the meant to eat in this environment.” Among the community’s
scale of their activities around more-than-human lives. Past most successful experiments (perhaps unsurprisingly) were
approaches to sustainable community development have recipes shared by neighbors or inspired by staples of Mayan
been often oriented towards transforming rural communi- cuisine, such as balché, a fermented alcoholic drink made
ties into adaptable, networked market actors: “for rural com- with honey, or bread made with the flour from the nut of a
munities to succeed in the global economy,” it was reasoned, ramón tree (Brosimum alicastrum, or yaxox in Maya). The
“they must be able to compete not only with other rural com- immense value of this local knowledge could not be under-
munities both at home or abroad but also with urban areas” estimated, one of the founders of the community emphasized
(Rainey et al. 2003). As Tsing (2015) argues, framing “scal- to me: “we nurture those relationships [with our neighbors]
ability” thusly requires homogenization, in that it requires in good faith, because without them we wouldn’t be here.”
“a project to change scales smoothly without any change While volunteers and paying visitors are essential in
in project frames,” and as such, “that project elements be helping ecovillage communities run smoothly, permanent
oblivious to the indeterminacies of encounter” (Tsing 2015: residents often prioritize the integrity of ecological systems
38). The imperative to scale up is often incongruous with the over accepting more paying guests and volunteers, express-
objectives of communities like Rancho Bosque and Aldea ing these limits in terms of more-than-human actors. In
Ceiba, however, which seek to scale back consumption prac- Aldea Ceiba, one resident who was tasked with giving tours
tices and instead resituate livelihoods within local ecolo- to newcomers, often paused at a shady grove of mangoes,
gies. Rather than working to build economies of scale that located off the forested trail to the meditation platform.
also happen to be “ecological,” residents instead reframe “We love having volunteers, but sometimes it is too much.
relationships with external sources around community resi- We are surrounded by water, but all of it here in Yucatán,
dents—both human and not. it’s underground,” said the resident, referring to the below-
Residents at Rancho Bosque and Aldea Ceiba both ground channels and pools (cenotes) formed in the karstic
expressed that a key goal was to recenter consumption limestone bedrock of the region. “These mangoes are our
practices around what the community was able to produce, guide for when to stop accepting new people. When we have
rather than vice versa. In both communities, raising live- too many people—thirty people, or more—especially in the
stock or cultivating gardens was primarily understood to be dry season, these trees will start to droop,” he told the group,
for consumption within the community rather than for sale emphasizing his point by frowning and mimicking limp,
(as an apprentice from Rancho Bosque remarked proudly, unwatered leaves with his arms. Likewise, Rancho Bosque
“we don’t grow anything we don’t also eat ourselves.” While paused their volunteer program for several months following
some residents acknowledged that the goal of complete the death of several sheep in their herd, even declining offers
“self-sustainability” (autosustentabilidad) might not be from paying visitors. The resident in charge of managing
wholly attainable, the conceptual benchmark was frequently livestock rotations explained that the decision was based on
invoked nonetheless in community discussions about con- the perception that the general health of the flock always
sumption habits. In the dining room of Rancho Bosque hung seemed to take a dip when new volunteers were present.
a sign with the title “Achieving a society without war, fear, Volunteers not only required training and consideration, but
hunger, [and] with better education—what do we have to do also brought unpredictable “energies” that had the potential

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to disrupt the subtle rhythms of the flock. The cascading Residents in different communities identified strongly
effects perceived to stem from this lack of attunement to with their roles working with particular species. Although
animal energies (“an unhappy animal is going to transfer that residents in both communities had broad knowledge across
energy to its milk, which then affects the cheese that comes various domains of community agricultural operations, indi-
from that milk,” he explained) could have significant conse- viduals gravitated towards particular roles either through
quences, both for the integrity of the products they hoped to self-selection (Aldea Ceiba), or through rotating assign-
sell as well as the survival of the flock itself. ments (Rancho Bosque). Relationships formed in these daily
Engaging with more-than-human actors in particular roles contributed to the formation of particularized kinds
ways also opens up and facilitates particular avenues of of knowledge that could have only been generated through
financial support. Both Rancho Bosque and Aldea Ceiba regular experiences. Relative to this full-time schedule with
were registered as Asociaciones Civiles (A.C.), a particular few (if any) days of vacation, the cash with which residents
kind of registered civil society, not-for-profit association. were provisioned monthly was paltry. When asked about
Registration as an A.C. allows ecovillage communities to this discrepancy, however, I was surprised to hear that many
formalize aspects of their work, including the foundation residents felt the exchange was fair. “I’m not working for
of educational programs in regenerative agriculture or sus- [the farm manager], and I’m not necessarily working for
tainable pasture management, or organizing and promoting the salary,” said one young farmhand, who had lived in the
cultural events. Additionally, such affiliation allows ecovil- community for nearly a year caring for their herd of sheep.
lage communities to legitimate external forms of support, Instead, this resident expressed a deep commitment to the
for example, from governmental funds for the development land and his flock, and highly valued the opportunity to gain
of regional culture, development institutions, or private experience in different ecological farming practices without
individuals. In particular, Rancho Bosque was supported assuming the financial risks of land ownership himself.
by a German development fund focused on promoting bio- Relationships forged with particular more-than-human
dynamic agriculture, particularly in developing countries. others draw residents into care relationships with still other
Similarly, the work of two community members of Aldea species. As one shepherd told me of his work with the sheep,
Ceiba on the topic of native bird conservation brought their “I call myself a pastor (shepherd), but actually I am really
community into contact with local conservationists, who engaged with praticultura (the management of grasslands),”
provided resources for initiating a youth club in the local referring to the fact that he spent most of his days not with
community dedicated to birdwatching and engaging in the sheep, but rather managing the community’s parcels of
waste management and conservation activities. Ultimately, pasture. This is to say that focusing on the health of sheep
these relationships culminated in a program through which meant also attending to the sheep’s web of relationships
selected students from the community group were invited with soil, parasites, and native vegetation. This practice of
to the United States to participate in an outreach program “nested cultivation”—caring for particular beings like grass,
offered by a renowned biological research institution. In this with the understanding that their care will have ancillary
way, residents assembled networks of external collaborators effects for other valued beings—shows how understanding
and supporters through their work with particular kinds of the broader ecological and social role of individual animals
species or agricultural practices, using these associations to or plants influences the way that work is undertaken.
root in place rather than expand outwards. In the Aldea Ceiba community, this was evidenced by
their dual cultivation of several species of native bees as well
as Apis mellifera, the European honey bee. Beekeepers in
Alternative values Aldea Ceiba community cultivated habitats for native bees
both directly, in caring for and managing hives of particular
By alternative values, I refer to the ways that ecovillage resi- species, and indirectly, by cultivating native vegetation pol-
dents seek to reframe community goals in relation to more- linated by specialist bees or by actively conserving existing
than-human lives. As Kasper (2008) observes, what distin- native bee nesting sites around their land. In doing so, com-
guishes the ecovillage paradigm is “an expanded notion of munity residents actively participated in the conservation of
‘community,’ one that includes not only people, but count- endangered native species, particularly those which were of
less other species as well” (22). Through this acknowledge- cultural significance to the local communities. While both
ment of self in relation to “interdependent parts and pro- produce honey, Apis mellifera produced far more honey
cesses” of the living systems which support the community, by weight per hive than did Melipona beecheii. Caring for
(Kasper 2008:22) ecovillage residents conceptualize the Apis mellifera bees enabled Aldea Ceiba residents to care
value of their work with other species in ways that transcend for Melipona beecheii bees, in that revenue generated from
strictly economic benefit. both workshops and the sale of bee products allow ecov-
illage residents to continue cultivating Melipona beecheii

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hives. The cultivation of native bees, however, transcended systems, time is conceived of as “predictable, homogenous,
their utility as a species that produced a marketable product. linear… and endlessly unfolding” (Kolinjivadi et al. 2020;
Rather, cultivating Melipona bees allowed the community Koretskaya and Feola 2020:306), and this understanding is
residents the ability to engage on a material level with local performed in conventional agrienterprises in a variety of
communities, particularly local beekeepers. ways: accelerating food production, manipulating (or elimi-
This engagement with native bees also implicates com- nating) seasonality, or privileging “modern” or technologi-
munity members in the broader discourse of indigenous land cally intensive techniques (Castree 2009; Koretskaya and
tenure and dispossession, and the survival of cultural tradi- Feola 2020). On the other hand, scholars have documented
tions. Because it is rare to encounter Melipona beecheii hives how grassroots movements and local communities construct
outside of human cultivation, the hives that Aldea Ceiba tends counternarratives, critiquing and remaking relationships
to are divisions from hives borrowed from their neighbors. between value and the passage of time (Kolinjivadi et al.
At the same time, honey produced by the Apis mellifera bees 2020; Bastian 2019). At Rancho Bosque and Aldea Ceiba,
was used to sustain the ongoing conservation work that the evidence of these re-negotiated understandings is influenced
community had organized around native bees. Not only did by relationships with more-than-human residents in two
income from the sale of Apis mellifera honey help to fund the senses: first, by synchronizing patterns of work to the life-
construction of more apiaries for native bees, but Apis honey rhythms of more-than-human others, and second, by recast-
was also used as a way to feed native bee colonies during the ing the value of expended labor-time in terms of net benefit
wet season, when food stores are low. to the community as a holistic system (rather than in the
These material relationships are underscored by the rela- service of particular profit-seeking activities).
tionships that the community’s beekeepers construct and In seeking to contest what they framed as a cultural loss
maintain with the hives they care for over time. One found- of connection with land, ecovillage residents consciously
ing resident became the community’s beekeeper over time adopted practices and styles of working that took into
after encountering the native Melipona bee for the first time, account seasonality and ecological cycles. Taking time to
developing an affinity for the “calm” species5 that seemed work “properly” with the animals and plants they cultivate
to mirror her own personality. Participating in external bee- involves organizing work activities around more-than-human
keeping conferences and workshops held at a local agroecol- timescales. This was evidenced in part by the rotational graz-
ogy school allowed this resident to deepen their understand- ing system implemented by Rancho Bosque, through which
ing of the differences in caring for native bees as opposed the movements of animals through particular pastures was
to the more widely known Apis mellifera species, and also carefully orchestrated so that no animal re-entered the same
to become conscious of the species’ precarious future. 6 parcel twice in a month span. Such rotations reflected both
Mindful that any honey harvested from the Melipona bee the life cycle of pasture grass, and the time it took to reach
represented a possible drain on the health or energy stores “optimal” height for re-grazing, as well as the life cycle of
of the hive, the beekeepers only extracted small amounts of intestinal parasites present in recently browsed pastures.
honey, using a hollow-tipped syringe to draw the honey out While such rotational practices demand more time and direct
of the “pots” the bees stored it in, instead of slicing them management by shepherds, such systems were seen as the
open with hot knives. By respecting the work of the bees only logical, “profitable” move—in that neglecting this bal-
themselves, the resident reasoned, the bees would hopefully ance could permanently degrade soils.
flourish to return the favor in kind. Working on smaller scales—with fewer hands and
resources than conventional operations, for instance—
necessitates much greater individual investments of labor
Alternative temporalities and time. However, many residents reframed these (often
uncompensated) investments of time as the opportunity cost
A third angle through which ecovillage residents unmake for the multiplied benefits of living in community. One even-
conventional understandings of profitability is by unmak- ing I found a young shepherd named Alejandro in the panad-
ing relationships between time and value: what Kolinjivadi ería (bakery), where he had been scraping bits of meat from
et al. (2020) call alternative “escape” temporalities, or time the skull of a slaughtered ewe while chatting with a friend.
scales that resist capitalism through incongruity. In capitalist Earlier in the day, a visitor to the community’s storefront
had inquired about the price of purchasing mutton, and I
posed the question to Alejandro—surely, the amount of time
5
Melipona beecheii do not have a stinger, and are generally not con- and attention devoted to processing the carcass would be
sidered to be an aggressive species.
6 reflected in the meat’s price at market? He grinned wryly,
Traditional cultivation of Melipona beecheii is in widespread
decline, as are wild populations of the insect (Villanueva-G and and explained it was quite the opposite: slaughtering the ewe
Roubik 2005). had taken nearly all day, and he was only completing the task

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by evening firelight. Without even accounting for the time barrel, creating a tunnel that extended nearly to the bottom,
he had devoted to all that managing the sheep flock entailed the stirrer would heave the stick back and begin stirring in
(cleaning stables, cutting and drying forage, or providing the opposite direction. The force necessary to whip the water
medical care), there would be no point to sell the meat. Still, one way and then another was exceedingly difficult to sustain
he considered his work more than worthwhile: “What we for any great length of time, and we passed the stick between
have here is enough for us to eat well,” he said, referring to us every few minutes.
other residents, visitors, and volunteers. “For my time, it’s As we stirred the water, with the goal of “bringing down-
worth it for us, but not to sell it.” wards” the energetic forces from the air into the water that
Closer attention to factors such as seasonality and would be used to germinate new seedlings, I considered
more-than-human lifetimes resulted in a diversification of briefly how such a task would be rendered absurd in an
economic practices, as profit was generally understood to industrialized agricultural system, where “time is money.”
derive from the whole of community landscapes and more- Under such assumptions, a task that absorbed the attention
than-human residents in concert, rather than the particular of four workers for the course of an hour (but with ostensibly
components or beings comprising those systems. At Rancho little change in the result) could hardly have been considered
Bosque, coffee and macadamia nuts were harvested intermit- productive. At the end of the hour, when the trail of water
tently throughout their fruiting cycles, while young pigs or began to slow, he cupped a handful of the water out of the
lambs were butchered and sold as individuals came to matu- bucket and observed it. “The water feels softer now,” he says,
rity or when herd populations began to outstrip available explaining that the change in color and texture indicated that
pasture space. In community meetings at Aldea Ceiba, resi- the bodies of microorganisms in the water had been broken
dents were encouraged to gather particular kinds of native up by the force of the vortex. The water was sufficiently
seeds or fruits at their leisure as they came into season: tufts energized now, he explained, and ready for application on
of cotton-like fiber from the seed pods of the ceiba tree the new seedlings to be planted in accordance with the new
(Ceiba pentandra) that often blanketed the ground in March, moon that would be occurring that month. When prompted,
or the edible seeds of the pich (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) the gardener explained the value of taking time for caring
or pixoy (Guazuma ulmifolia) trees.7 Because processing about seemingly mundane details was one of the privileges
seeds was extremely time-intensive but required little con- of working in smaller scale agricultural systems: “we have
centration, this work was often folded into (or became an time to bring the energy in, to care about the energy—we’re
excuse for) leisure time: small groups of residents inevita- not trying to produce as much as we can.” The experience
bly formed in the communal palapa around piles of hulled revealed how the performance of alternative relationships
seedpods, especially in the midday heat of the dry season. with time constituted a central part of putting the commu-
Working alone, the work of prying small seeds from their nity’s vision into practice. Instead of “inefficient,” slowing
hulls was considered hardly worth doing because of the time down and paying attention (in this case, to microorganisms
required to produce an amount of any significance. As a and vegetal energies) are framed as strategies for doing more
collectively performed pastime, however, the work became with less, focused on producing better quality livelihoods on
worthwhile. their own terms.
One particular experience working in Rancho Bosque’s
garden spaces reflected the differences in how residents
understood the expenditure of their time relative to resultant Conclusion
benefits. After preparing beds for the transplantation of seed-
lings, the gardener whom I was working alongside enlisted This article has worked to trace how ecovillage residents
the help of two apprentice-shepherds and myself to “dynam- attempt to make their respective communities “into a shape
ize” (dinamizar) the water we would supply the plants with that cannot so easily be appropriated by a capitalist value
after planting.8 For the next hour, myself and three residents system…[by] changing the frame of reference” (Odell
would stand huddled around the blue plastic rain barrel, stir- 2019:23). By engaging with qualitative examples of how
ring the water in a clockwise motion with a long, broad stick. Rancho Bosque and Aldea Ceiba residents express under-
As soon as the water began to swirl around the edge of the standings of rentabilidad in relation to more-than-human
residents, I outline how changing terms (by embodying and
7
The common names of each of these tree species are in Maya; pich performing alternative scales, values, and temporalities)
is also referred to as guanacaste in Spanish. articulates with changes in practice. In particular, these cases
8
The process of repetitively stirring preparations in water (“dynami- reveal how cultivating an expanded understanding of value
zation”) is a practice associated with biodynamic agriculture, the par- in relation to daily practices of work helps ecovillage resi-
ticular approach to which the ecovillage community had adopted as a
guiding set of strategies for raising their livestock herds and cultivat- dents to make sense of and subvert latent interdependencies
ing their gardens. on broader capitalist systems.

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Sustainability Science (2022) 17:1235–1246 1245

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as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, permaculture, and ecovillages, Berghahn, Oxford, New York, pp
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included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated America. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in de La Bellacasa PM (2017) Matters of care. University of Minnesota
the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not Press, Minneapolis
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will de la Cadena M, Blaser M (2018) A world of many worlds. Duke
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a University Press, Durham
copy of this licence, visit http://​creat​iveco​mmons.​org/​licen​ses/​by/4.​0/. Demaria F, Kothari A (2017) The post-development dictionary agenda:
paths to the pluriverse. Third World Q 38:2588–2599
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