Griffith University

BSAg, M.A., PhD

Academic staff, Griffith School of Environment

Contact details for Dr William Metcalf

Research Expertise

I am a world leader in researching intentional communities of all sorts, contemporary and historical. I have published seven books, in Australia, USA, Germany and UK, in this area.
I am also an experienced social history researcher, and have written numerous historical accounts, including a book about the history of Environmental Sciences at Griffith University entitled, The Evolution of Environmental Sciences (1996).

Currently teaching

As an Adjunct Lecturer, I have no regular teaching duties, but usually have some input each year into our Research methods course.

Selected Publications

  Books 

• The Findhorn Book of Community Living, Forres, U.K.: Findhorn Press, 2004.
• Herrnhut: Australia???s First Utopian Commune, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002 (with E. Huf).
• The Gayndah Communes, Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press, 1998.
• Evolution of Environmental Sciences, Nathan: ENS, Griffith University, 1996.
• Shared Visions, Shared Lives: Communal Living Around the Globe, Forres, UK: Findhorn Press, 1996.
• From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality: Cooperative Lifestyles in Australia, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1995.

Book Chapters

•  
• ???International Perspectives???, in S. Bunker, C. Coates and J. How (eds), Diggers and Dreamers, London: D&D Publications, 2007, pp. 41-7.
• ???Money, Property and Accountability in Intentional Communities???, in  V. Peters & M. Stengel (eds), Eurotopia: Intentional Communities and Ecovillages in Europe, Poppau (Germany): Eurotopia-Verzeichnis, 2005, pp. 34-8.

Encyclopedia Articles 

• ???Intentional (or Alternative) Communities in Western Australia??? in Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, J. Gregory and J. Gothard (eds), Crawley: University of Western Australia Press,  2008.
• ???Intentional Communities??? in Goethals, G., Sorenson, G. & Burns, J. (Eds), Encyclopedia of Leadership,  (vol. 2) Thousand Oaks, USA: Sage, 2004, pp. 735-40 (with D. Christian).
• ???Intentional Communities in Australia and New Zealand??? in K. Christensen and D. Levinson, et. al. (Eds) The Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World, Thousand Oaks, USA: Sage, 2003) pp. 705-12.

Scholarly Articles in Refereed Journals

• ???The Ship Inn Hotel: a Story of South Brisbane and Southbank??? Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland , Vol 20, No. 2, 2007, pp. 31-49.
• ???Hachshara: An Australian Kibbutz???,  Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, Volume XVII, Part 2, 2006, pp. 191-216.
• ???Lady Parachutists and the End of Civilisation in Queensland???, Queensland Review , Vol. 13, No 1, 2006, pp. 33-49.
• ???A Messiah for the West: J.C.M. Fisher and the Church of the Firstborn in Western Australia???, The Journal of Australian Colonial History, V. 8, 2006, pp. 117-36 (with G. Featherstone).
• ???Dr Thomas Pennington Lucas: Queensland Scientist, Author, Doctor, Dreamer and Inventor???, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, V. 19, No. 5, 2006, pp. 788-804.
• ???Federative Home???, Communal Societies V. 24, 2004, pp. 25-46.