Alternative dwellings: Home-making practices from ecovillages in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines

This thesis aims to explore the constellation of Italian ecovillages as peculiar realities where some people try to envision and practice new models to engage in a relationship with their territory and live together as intentional communities. In particular, how ecovillages can offer an alternative way of dwelling into a place, perceive the spatial aliveness of a territory and how the multidimensionality of the home plays a key role in such processes. The study focuses on two ecovillages in Central Italy, Tarole and Popolo degli Elfi: in both communities, the search for an alternative lifestyle becomes a stark opposition to a capitalistic idea of progress, conceptually based in the city and the return to what is considered a more genuine way of living, reconnecting with nature or to a specific imaginary of it. Through the testimonies of ecovillage residents and guests, the fieldwork connects their daily routines to the theoretical framework of environmental humanities, ultimately questioning how such communities have the possibility to challenge or reenact anthropocentric dynamics. In the analysis of the perception of the local territory, the research also focuses on the way ecovillages create mutual support networks and alternative maps of a landscape, observing the biases involved in its representations.