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Figure 7. Nagyszékely, Hungary, 2009. Source http://elofaluhalozat.hu/
elofalvak/24-a-nagyszekelyi-elofalu-kezdemenyezes
ecovillagers as utopian fugitives (Litfin 2011: 136) and their lives as a faddish
extremity. The apocalyptic vision of the future often found in environmental
discourse, including the ecovillagers narrative, did not help their acceptance and
the prophetic discourse of scourging the world discouraged many people. The
knowledge and experience they accumulated was only relevant to a narrow group
of people.
This was the case for many years, until the late 2010s and early 2020s, when
the situation changed almost overnight: sustainable, local, and ecological terms
and methods entered the public mind and concerns that were previously voiced
only by a narrow group of people — such as ecovillagers — are now heard everywhere.
Discourses on the ecological crisis, which are becoming more and more evident,
have entered everyday life and, together with first the pandemic and then the
Ukrainian-Russian war, have created a situation that is causing the image of security
and the future to be reassessed in mainstream society. As environmental and — in
close connection — economic and social problems have become increasingly evident,
and the existence of these problems has been accepted, the methods of resolution
proposed, practiced and lived by the green movements and ecological life reform
movements, including ecovillages, have been eulogized. This was seen as a very
important confirmation: “We have been preparing for 30 years for what we have
now” (Farkas 2022); their predictions about environmental problems have come
true, and the way of life they have been practicing has in many respects fulfilled
their expectations (no food supply problems, no particular quarantine, no heating
problems, etc.).'*
4 But they are well aware that they cannot escape the „end of the world”, since they are far from
being perfectly self-sufficient. Moreover, the drought of recent years has made things particularly
difficult for an off-the-grid lifestyle.