Alternative places for alternative people? A changing ecovillage discourse from Othered lifestyle to another rurality.

Abstract

Interest in ecovillages has increased greatly in the last two decades, alongside a growing awareness of the need for more sustainable lifestyles. Once regarded as countercultural, alternative places for alternative people, some ecovillages actively work to gain a more mainstream identity for themselves and sustainable lifestyles. While most research focuses on perspectives within ecovillages, attention to outside representations or discourse is limited. This paper looks to expand knowledge into how ecovillages are represented from the outside through factual media. Analysing printed texts and documentary films, we ask how (rural) sustainable lifestyles are represented through factual media surrounding an ecovillage regarded as Norway's first. Where representations have the power to (re)produce understandings of the world around us, we argue that representations of ecovillages can potentially construct or remove barriers towards engaging with sustainable ways of living. Following the discourse from 2001 to 2019 we find the ecovillage represented as either Idealistic or Entrepreneurial. Processes of Othering juxtapose alternative sustainable lifestyles with an Entrepreneurial sustainable place, creating distance to Idealistic dreams and celebrating commercialism. Additionally, factual media plays a role in constructing understandings of ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ through representing a potentially new discourse of Norwegian rurality, an ‘eco-idyll’ for mainstreaming sustainable lifestyles.