Commune
From ICWiki
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes.
With the simple definition of a commune as an intentional community with 100% income sharing, the online directory of the FIC lists 195 communes world wide.(April 2009). Some of these are religious institutions such as abbeys and monasteries, others are anthroposophic Camphill villages.
Contents |
Central characteristics of communes
The central characteristics of communes, and the definition of what a commune is, have changed over the years. In the 1960s, almost any counter-cultural, rural, intentional community was called a commune.
At the start of the 1970s, communes were regarded by Ron E. Roberts in his book, "The New Communes", as being a subclass of the larger category of Utopias. Three main characteristics were listed: first, egalitarianism - communes specifically rejected hierarchy or graduations of social status as being necessary to social order. Second, human scale - members of communes saw the scale of society as it was then organised as being too large. Third, communes were consciously anti-bureaucratic.
Twenty five years later, Dr. Bill Metcalf, in his book "Shared Visions, Shared Lives" defined communes as having the following core principles: the importance of the group as opposed to the nuclear family unit, a "common purse", a collective household, group decision making in general and intimate affairs.
Sharing everyday life and facilities, a commune is an idealised form of family, being a new sort of "primary group" (generally with fewer than 20 people). Commune members have emotional bonds to the whole group rather than to any sub-group, and the commune is experienced with emotions which go beyond just social collectivity.
In the German commune book, "Das Kommune Buch", communes are defined by Elisabeth Voß as communities which:
live and work together,
have a communal economy, i.e. common finances and common property (land, buildings, means of production),
have communal decision making - usually consensus decision making,
try to reduce hierarchy and hierarchical structures,
have communalisation of housework, childcare and other communal tasks,
have equality between women and men,
have low ecological footprints through sharing and saving resources.
See also
Sources
Roberts, Ron E. (1971). The New Communes Coming Together in America. New Jersey: Prentice Hall inc.
Metcalf, Dr.Bill. (1996) Shared Visions, Shared Lives, Findhorn Press, Scotland.
Voß, Elisabeth. (1996) Was ist eine Kommune? Pages 17 to 26, in, Das Kommune Buch, by Kollektiv KommuneBuch, Göttingen: Verlag Die Werkstatt. ISBN 3-89533-162-7
External Links
Stub Alert!
This article is a stub, requiring further development...
Even stubs should include some content on the article topic.
You're invited to help develop this page's content.
Deleting the "{{:Template:Stub}}" tag from this page's code removes this Stub Alert
Delete this if you feel the page has been developed enough to stand on its own.
Conversely, enter "{{:Template:Stub}}" on any page to embed this alert.
