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]

Categorization of communities[link]

Benjamin Zablocki categorized communities this way^[3]:

• Alternative-family communities
• Cooperative communities
• Countercultural communities
• Egalitarian communities
• Political communities
• Psychological communities (based on mystical or gestalt principles)
• Rehabilitational communities (see Synanon)
• Religious communities
• Spiritual communities
• Experimental communities

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[link]

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[link]

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[link]

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[link]

Kibbutzim in Israel is an example of officially organized communes. Today, there are dozens of urban communes in Israel, often called 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 have members who are graduates of zionist-socialist youth movements, like HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, HaMahanot HaOlim and Hashomer Hatsair.^[11]

Russia[link]

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[link]

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[link]

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[link]

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (September 2011)

• The Harmony Society started by Johann Georg Rapp in Harmony, Pennsylvania, in 1804 and dissolving around 1905 in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, was one of the longest-running financially successful communes in American history.

• Brook Farm in Massachusetts existed from 1841 to 1847. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the commune's founders, fictionalized his experience in the novel The Blithedale Romance (1852).

• 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 Amana Colonies were communal settlements in Iowa which lasted from 1855 to 1932.

• The anarchist Home Colony was formed in 1895 across the Puget Sound from Tacoma, Washington on Key Peninsula, and lasted until 1919.

• The Twin Oaks Community is a commune that was founded in 1967; it continues to thrive.

• Ganas is an on-going commune in the New Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island, New York.

• The Latin Settlements by German freethinkers mostly in rural, south central Texas in the mid-19th century.

• The Cecilia Community 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, Illinois' Uptown area, is perhaps the largest urban commune in the United States, and is still strongly flavored by its hippie / 60s roots.

See also[link]

• Anarchist Catalonia
• Anarcho-communism
• Art Commune
• Co-operative living arrangements
• Common land
• Communal land
• Commune (documentary), a 2005 documentary about Black Bear Ranch, an intentional community located in Siskiyou County, California
• Commune of Paris
• Communism
• Diggers and Dreamers
• Drop City
• Egalitarian communities
• Ejido, a form of Mexican land distribution resembling a commune
• Equality colony
• Fellowship for Intentional Community
• Great Leap Forward, a time period in the 1950s and 1960s when the Chinese government created such communes
• Obshchina, communes of the Russian Empire
• Hramada, a Belarussian commune assembly
• Hutterite, a Christian sect that lives in communal "colonies"
• Intentional communities
• Kibbutz, Israeli communes
• List of intentional communities
• Marxism
• People's commune, type of administrative level in China from 1958 - early 1980s
• Renaissance Community
• Utopia
• Well-field system, a Chinese land distribution system with common lands control by a village
• World Brotherhood Colonies

Footnotes[link]

Sources[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Communistic Societies.

• Communal Studies Bibliography
• Federation of Egalitarian Communities
• Intentional Communities Website
• List of Communes of France
• Intentional Communities Wiki
• kamparealis Online cooperative commune (Russian)
• List of Communes in the Communities Directory
• "Roots of Communal Revival" by Timothy Miller. A paper on communes in North America from World War I to the 1960s.
• Twin Oaks Communities Conference Conference focused on education about living in intentional communities.