Ecovillages are - usually rural - sites where people live, produce and research together. They create spaces for demonstration and training on social and environmental technologies that support the idea and the development of sustainable human settlements.
Eco Village - Eco Truly Park Peru, foto by Alex Proimos Licence: CC BY:
source
Ecovillages are bottom-up initiatives, that can be
"defined as communitarian endeavors that seek to integrate human activities with the natural world, as well as gain some measure of control over its resources, in a way that is supportive of lasting human development and environmental sustainability" (Ana Margardida Esteva 2016: 1)
Despite their diversity, ecovillages - share the purpose of being "laboratories for the future" or "testfields" for a transition towards socio-economic systems based on post-carbon technology - seek for the reconstitution of the commons understood as our common resources - share a radical environmental approach, rooted in a holistic cosmovision that regards ecology, community building,science and spirituality as integrated and inseparable fields
# Examples The concept of ecovillages includes settlements as diverse as - villages in so called developing countries that base their activities on traditional ecological knowledge like in Colufifa, Senegal - farmland communes with sustainable living structures as in Svanholm, Denmark, Baskemölla Ecoby in Sweden and Eartheaven in the USA - eco-architectural town experiments like Auroville in India or even - spiritual communities with ecological infrastructures as in Damanhur, Italy and Wongsamit Ashram, Thailand
# Sources
Ana Margarida Esteves (2016): Radical Environmentalism and 'Commoning' pdf 
Maddy Harland and William Keepin (eds.) 2014: The Song of the Earth html