Commune

Commune

A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, 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. Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times wrote that, contrary to popular misconceptions, "most communes of the '90s are not free-love refuges for flower children, but well-ordered, financially solvent cooperatives where pragmatics, not psychedelics, rule the day."[1] There are many contemporary intentional communities all over the world, a list of which can be found at the Fellowship for Intentional Community.[2]

Contents

Categorization of communities

Benjamin Zablocki categorized communities this way[3]:

Of course, many communal ventures encompass more than one of these categorizations.

Some communes, such as the ashrams of the Vedanta Society or the Theosophical commune Lomaland, formed around spiritual leaders, while others formed around political ideologies. For others, the "glue" is simply the desire for a more shared, sociable lifestyle. Moreover, some people find it is more economical to live communally.[citation needed]

Core principles of communes

The central characteristics of communes, and the definition of what a commune is, have changed over the years. Before 1840 such communities were known as "communist and socialist settlements"; by 1860 they were called "communitarian" and around 1920 the term "intentional community" was used.[4]

At the start of the 1970s "The New Communes" author Ron E. Roberts classified communes as a subclass of the larger category of Utopias.[5] 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.[5]

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[6]. 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[6].

Communes around the world

With the simple definition of a commune as an intentional community with 100% income sharing, the online directory of the FIC lists 186 communes world wide (17 Aug 2011).[7] Some of these are religious institutions such as abbeys and monasteries, others are anthroposophic Camphill villages.

Many cultures naturally practice communal living, and wouldn't designate their way of life as a planned 'commune' per se, though their living situation may have many characteristics of a commune.

Germany

In Germany, a large number of the intentional communities define themselves as communes and there is a network of political communes called "Kommuja"[8] with about 30 member groups (May 2009). Germany has a long tradition of intentional communities going back to the groups inspired by the principles of Lebensreform in the 19th century. Later, about 100 intentional communities were started in the Weimar Republic after World War I, many with a communal economy. In the 1960s, there was a resurgence of communities calling themselves communes, starting with the Kommune 1 in Berlin, followed by Kommune 2 (also Berlin) and Kommune 3 in Wolfsburg.

In the German commune book, Das KommuneBuch, communes are defined by Elisabeth Voß as communities which[9]:

  • 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.

Israel

A dinner in the urban commune of HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, Israel

Kibbutzim in Israel is an example of officially organized communes. Today, there are tens of urban communes in Israel, called often urban kibbutzim. The urban kibbutzim are smaller and more anarchist.[10] Most of the urban communes in Israel emphasize social change, education, and local involvement in the cities where they live. Some of the urban communes are composed by graduates of zionist-socialist youth movements, like HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, Hamahanot Haolim and Hashomer Hatsair.[11]

Russia

In imperial Russia, the vast majority of Russian peasants held their land in communal ownership within a mir community, which acted as a village government and a cooperative.[citation needed] The very widespread and influential pre-Soviet Russian tradition of Monastic communities of both sexes could also be considered a form of communal living. After the end of Communism in Russia monastic communities have again become more common, populous and, to a lesser degree, more influential in Russian society.

United States

Although communes are most frequently associated with the hippie movement—the "back-to-the-land" ventures of the 1960s and 1970s—there is a long history of communes in America. Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times wrote that "after decades of contraction, the American commune movement has been expanding since the mid-1990s, spurred by the growth of settlements that seek to marry the utopian-minded commune of the 1960s with the American predilection for privacy and capital appreciation."[12]

Venezuela

As of 2010, the Venezuelan state has intiated the construction of almost 200 "socialist communes" which are autonomous and independent from the government. The communes have their own "productive gardens” that grow their own vegetables as a method of self-supply. The communes also take decisions independently in regards to administration and the use of funding.[13]

Notable examples of communes

  • Fruitlands was a commune founded in 1843 by Amos Bronson Alcott in Harvard, Massachusetts. The tempo of life in this Transcendentalist community is recorded by Alcott's daughter, Louisa May Alcott, in her piece "Transcendental Wild Oats."
  • The Oneida Community was a commune that lasted from 1848 to 1881 in Oneida, New York. Although this utopian experiment is better known today for its manufacture of Oneida silverware, it was one of the longest-running communes in American history.
  • The commune Modern Times was formed in 1851 in Long Island.
  • The anarchist Home Colony was formed in 1895 across the Puget Sound from Tacoma, Washington on Key Peninsula, and lasted until 1919.
  • Ganas is a commune currently in existence in the New Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island, New York.
  • The Cecilia Commuity in Brazil, an anarchist community founded by Italian immigrants around the turn of the century in the southern region of Brazil.
  • The Brotherhood of the Spirit/Renaissance Community, created by Michael Metelica in 1968 and lasting until 1988, was the largest commune in the northeast United States.
  • Jesus People USA (JPUSA), started in 1972 and based in Chicago, Illiois' Uptown area, is perhaps the largest urban commune in the United States, and is still strongly flavored by its hippie / 60s roots.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (1998-11-29). "Yes, It's a Commune. Yes, It's on Staten Island.". The New York Times (The New York Times Company): pp. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/29/nyregion/yes-it-s-a-commune-yes-it-s-on-staten-island.html?scp=3&sq=twin%20oaks%20intentional%20community&st=cse. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
  2. ^ "Welcome to the Intentional Communities Directory". irectory.ic.org. http://directory.ic.org/. Retrieved 28 September 2010. 
  3. ^ Zablocki, Benjamin (1971). The Joyful Community: An Account of the Bruderhof: A Communal Movement Now in Its Third Generation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226977498. 
  4. ^ Stockwell, Foster (1998). Encyclopedia of American Communes. 
  5. ^ a b Roberts 1971.
  6. ^ a b Metcalf 1996.
  7. ^ "Commune Directory - List of Communes". FIC Online Communities Directory. Fellowship for Intentional Community. 2011-08-18. http://directory.ic.org/records/communes.php. Retrieved 2011-08-18. "We use commune only when referring to communities that share their income and resources completely, or nearly so" 
  8. ^ "Kommuja-Netzwerk". kommuja.de. http://www.kommuja.de. Retrieved 28 September 2010. 
    This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.
  9. ^ Voß 1996, pp. 17-26.
  10. ^ Horrox, James. "A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement", pp.87-109
  11. ^ Horrox, James. "Rebuilding Israel's Utopia", Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, October 2007
  12. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (2006-06-11). "Extreme Makeover, Commune Edition". The New York Times (The New York Times Company): pp. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/weekinreview/11jacobs.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=twin%20oaks%20intentional%20community&st=cse. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
  13. ^ Tamara Pearson. "184 Communes Currently in Formation in Venezuela". venezuelanalysis.com. http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5123. Retrieved 28 September 2010. 

Sources

  • Curl, John (2007). Memories of Drop City, The First Hippie Commune of the 1960s and the Summer of Love, a memoir. iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-42343-4. Red-coral.net
  • Curl, John (2009) For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, PM Press. ISBN 978-1-60486-072-6.
  • Fitzgerald, George R. (1971). Communes Their Goals, Hopes, Problems. New York: Paulist Press.
  • Horrox, James. (2009). A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement. Oakland: AK Press.
  • Margaret Hollenbach. (2004)Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune. University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-8263-3463-6.
  • Roberts, Ron E. (1971). The new communes: coming together in America. Prentice-Hall. 
  • Rosabeth Moss Kanter. (1972) Commitment and community: communes and utopias in sociological perspective. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-14575-5
  • Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. (1973) Communes: creating and managing the collective life. New York, Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-043476-7
  • Lattin, Don. (2003, March 2) Twilight of Hippiedom. The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 16, 2008
  • Lauber, John. (1963, June). Hawthorne’s Shaker Tales [Electronic version]. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 18, 82-86.
  • Metcalf, Bill; Metcalf, William James (1996). Shared visions, shared lives: communal living around the globe. Scotland: Findhorn Press. ISBN 1899171010. 
  • Meunier, Rachel. (1994, December 17). Communal Living in the Late 60s and Early 70s. Retrieved March 16, 2008, from thefarm.org
  • Miller, Timothy. (1997) "Assault on Eden: A Memoir of Communal Life in the Early '70s", Utopian Studies, Vol. 8, 1997.
  • Roberts, Ron E. (1971). The New Communes Coming Together in America. New Jersey: Prentice Hall inc.
  • Veysey, Laurence R. (1978)The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth Century America
  • Voß, Elisabeth (1996). "Was ist eine Kommune?" (in German). Das KommuneBuch. Göttingen: Verlag Die Werkstatt. ISBN 3-89533-162-7. 
  • Wild, Paul H. (1966 March). Teaching Utopia [Electronic version]. The English Journal, Vol. 55, No. 3, 335-337+339.
  • Zablocki, Benjamin. (1980, 1971) The Joyful Community: An Account of the Bruderhof: A Communal Movement Now in Its Third Generation (University of Chicago Press, 1971, reissued 1980), ISBN 0-226-97749-8. (The 1980 edition of the Whole Earth Catalog called this book "the best and most useful book on communes that's been written".)
  • Zablocki, Benjamin. (1980) Alienation and Charisma: A Study of Contemporary American Communes (The Free Press, 1980), ISBN 0-02-935780-2.

External links


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  • Commune — Commune, La …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • commune — [ kɔmyn ] n. f. • comugne XIIe; lat. communia, de communis → commun 1 ♦ Anciennt Ville affranchie du joug féodal, et que les bourgeois administraient eux mêmes; corps des bourgeois. ⇒ bourgeoisie (1o), échevinage. La charte d une commune. 2 ♦… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • commune — Commune. s. f. La populace, le commun peuple d une ville, ou d un bourg. La Commune d un tel lieu. la Commune s esmut. la Commune prit les armes. il ne faut pas irriter la Commune. armer la Commune. Les Communes au pluriel, se prend pour les… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Commune — Com*mune (k[o^]m*m[=u]n ), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Communed} (k[o^]m*m[=u]nd ); p. pr. & vb. n. {Communing}.] [OF. communier, fr. L. communicare to communicate, fr. communis common. See {Common}, and cf. {Communicate}.] 1. To converse together with… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Commune — Com mune (k[o^]m m[=u]n), n. [F., fr. commun. See {Common}.] 1. The commonalty; the common people. [Obs.] Chaucer. [1913 Webster] In this struggle to use the technical words of the time of the commune , the general mass of the inhabitants,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • commune — com‧mune [ˈkɒmjuːn ǁ ˈkɑː , kəˈmjuːn] noun [countable] 1. COMMERCE a group of people who live and work together and share what they produce 2. FARMING a group of people who work together on a farm owned by the state, and give what they produce to …   Financial and business terms

  • commune — commune1 [kə myo͞on′; ] for n. [ käm′yo͞on΄] vi. communed, communing [ME communen < OFr comuner, to make common, share < comun (see COMMON); also < OFr communier, to administer the sacrament < L communicare, to share (LL(Ec), to… …   English World dictionary

  • commune — Ⅰ. commune [1] ► NOUN 1) a group of people living together and sharing possessions and responsibilities. 2) the smallest French territorial division for administrative purposes. 3) (the Commune) the government elected in Paris in 1871, advocating …   English terms dictionary

  • Commune FC — Commune Full name Commune Football Club Founded 1977 Ground Stade du 4 Août Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Capacity: 40,000) Chairman …   Wikipedia

  • Commune — Com mune (k[o^]m m[=u]n), n. Communion; sympathetic intercourse or conversation between friends. [1913 Webster] For days of happy commune dead. Tennyson. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • commune — [n] group living together collective, commonage, commonality, community, cooperative, family, kibbutz, municipality, neighborhood, rank and file, village; concept 379 commune [v] communicate, experience with another confer, confide in,… …   New thesaurus

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