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A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective.^{[citation needed]} Collectives differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an economic benefit or saving (but can be that as well). There may be some issues with meaningfully describing the qualities of a collective.

Types of groups[link]

Collectives are sometimes characterised by attempts to share and exercise political and social power and to make decisions on a consensus-driven and egalitarian basis.

A commune or intentional community, which may also be known as a "collective household", is a group of people who live together in some kind of dwelling or residence, or in some other arrangement (e.g. sharing land). Collective households may be organized for a specific purpose (e.g. relating to business, parenting, or some other shared interest).

The term "collective" is sometimes used to describe a species as a whole—for example, the "human collective."

A "street artist collective", sometimes referred to as a "graffiti crew" or in other instances simply an "artist collective" is typically a collection of individuals with similar interests in producing and documenting street art as a group. These "street artist collectives" or "graffiti crews" are often composed of friends or friends of friends from all walks of life with different beliefs, careers, & religions. These collectives can range in size from a few people to thousands of members. The style of art produced by these groups can have vast differences. The motivations behind the work they produce can be for a common cause or individually motivated purposes. Some collectives are simply people who enjoy painting with someone else and have no other goals or motivations for forming their collective.

A "work collective" is a type of horizontal collectivism wherein a business functions as a partnership of individual professionals, recognizing them as equals and rewarding them for their expertise. The working collective aims to reduce costs to clients while maintaining healthy rewards for participating partners. This is accomplished by eliminating the operating costs that are needed to support levels of management.^[1]

See also[link]

• Collectivism
• Collective farming
• Artist collective
• Musical collective
• Collective bargaining
• Collective agreement
• Collective investment scheme
• Collective security
• Collective intelligence
• Collective consciousness
• Collective unconscious
• Discursive dilemma
• Kibbutz
• Law collective
• Mutual aid
• Worker cooperative
• Workplace democracy
• Voluntary association

References[link]

1. ^ PRWeb Santa Monica, February 26, 2010. At One Year, New Agency Structure Succeeds: Commitment to Small Business Continues [1]

Further reading[link]

• For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, PM Press, by John Curl, 2009, ISBN 978-1-60486-072-6

External links[link]

• Collective Labor is Direct Action: an introduction to worker owned collectives Andrew W. Smith, 2003