Yohan Sancerni, co-founder of the Pourgues ecovillage and author of The Ecovillage Trap
For nine years I helped to build one of the most visited ecovillages in France. In 2025 we closed it. Today I talk about what really happens inside intentional communities, and how to join one with your eyes open.
Invite me on your show Press photosWho I am, in a few lines
Yohan Sancerni is a French author. Before community life, he co-founded the École Dynamique in Paris, one of the first democratic schools in France. In 2016 he co-founded the Pourgues ecovillage, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and lived there nine years. The place became a reference in France, with families, home education inspired by democratic schools, trainings and thousands of visitors. In 2025 the collective decided to close it. His book The Ecovillage Trap tells this story from the inside.
The book came out in France in July 2026 under the title Le Piège des Écolieux. It found thousands of readers in a few months, with an average of 4.9 out of 5 on Amazon.fr and Babelio. The English edition came out on Amazon on November 1, 2026. In France, around 13,000 people read my newsletter, and I write about community life for 16,000 people on Instagram and 12,000 on Facebook.
Today I don't recruit for any place and I don't sell any dream. I look at communities like a researcher who lived inside one, and I try to say honestly what works and what breaks.
What the first English readers say
Before the English edition, I asked in an intentional communities group who wanted to read the book first. Almost 150 people answered, and twenty read it and sent me their comments. Some of them live in a community, or left one.
I read your compelling book in one sitting. The structure is very strong, honest, illuminating. You don't crush anyone's dreams, but offer advice and lived experience. I haven't read many books like this.
This read was medicine for me and has helped me process much of my own experiences in the community I left over a year ago. I view it as critical reading for anyone looking to build community.
You practise what you preach in your book: thoughtful, honest and direct communication with yourself and others.
It definitely sounds familiar and resonant in many ways, which is reassuring and comforting while also sad.
I think your French English is an asset. It's a real pleasure to read and follow your thoughts.
I really loved what I read.
Five questions you can ask me
- Why do intentional communities break, even the ones that look successful from outside?
- What happened between you at Pourgues, and why did you decide to close the ecovillage in 2025?
- Money, power, recognition: what does nobody talk about when a group starts a project together?
- What should someone ask before joining an ecovillage or a cohousing?
- After nine years and the end of Pourgues, do you still believe in community life?
I speak English with a French accent, people tell me it is easy to follow. I am happy to do interviews online (Zoom, Riverside, or what you use), I live in France, so Paris time.
The Ecovillage Trap
Nine years inside a French ecovillage, from its founding to its dissolution, told by one of its co-founders. The book follows the life of the group scene by scene: the money nobody dares to talk about, the power without any title, the exhaustion of the ones who stay, the departures. It ends with the REVEAL method, six questions to ask before you join any community.
Self-published · paperback (189 pages, with drawings), Kindle and ebook · English edition November 2026 · French edition Le Piège des Écolieux, July 2026
See the book pageJournalists and podcast hosts can receive a free copy of the ebook: just ask by email.
Photos you can use
Free to use for an article or a podcast page about the book, with the credit "Yohan Sancerni / En Transition". Click to open the full size.
Write me directly
I have no agent and no press office, I read and answer every message myself, usually in one or two days.
yohan@en-transition.com