Enrollment of space into the network of sustainability

Abstract

This ethnographic study, conducted at the Ecovillage at Ithaca, illuminates how spatial design configurations of a community shape the ongoing project of sustainable living. To articulate the ideological transformations of the community, actor-network theory is employed as the theoretical framework that facilitates further understanding of the sociomateriality of space and the roles spatiality plays as an actant in the network of sustainability. Soja’s spatial theory, with a focus on the agencing of space, strengthens this analysis. We demonstrate how spatial design principles create opportunities and challenges for the community members as they pre(pro)scribe privacy issues, responsibilize actors, and segregate the community from the mainstream. Amid this dynamic process for achieving sustainability, we observe and document performativity of space in the actor network