Week 9 Eco dreams....or survival instincts?

It depends entirely on whether the group in question is already motivated to some extent on whether group based approaches to sustainable consumption work in my view. Like the scandinavian eco villages which were studied during week 4, people who already share an ideal can support each other very effectively in groups. I consider that survival was once the motivation for homo sapiens to work together in groups/tribes and it is because this system works we live together in villages or tribes now, and do not live successfully on our own. Trying to manage any kind of existence without the support of others who have a vested interest in the whole group ethos surviving is extremely hard. Society recognises this in the help that is given through benefits to single mothers for example.
Therefore if the group is already pro sustainable consumption practices,(or anything else for that matter),working together will be far more effective than working individually towards that end. "Many hands make light work" and shared beliefs strengthen the community and increase its potential for success.

If however,there is not a shared ideal, the result would be quite different. It would probably become an irritant to members who did not agree with the concept being pursued and they might well become resistant to its process and would either opt out of it or even possibly sabotage it. Imagine living in a community with, for example, some powerfully expressed cult belief, if one did not share it!

There is also the point that groups that are living apart from and differently from other communities may become, like the Amish in the US, a kind of social island where they follow their own system for living but they do not in any way influence others to follow their example.

In conclusion group efforts are better than individual efforts, when there is some consensus, but it does not follow that the group's ideas will spread successfully to a wider community unless there is some clearly perceived benefit to be derived from it.