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Anintentional community is a voluntary residentialcommunity designed to foster a high degree ofsocial cohesion andteamwork.[1][2][3] Such communities typically promote shared values or beliefs, or pursue a common vision, which may bepolitical,religious,utopian orspiritual, or are simply focused on the practical benefits of cooperation and mutual support. While some groups emphasise sharedideologies, others are centred on enhancingsocial connections, sharing resources, and creating meaningful relationships.
Although intentional communities are sometimes described asalternative lifestyles[4] orsocial experiments,[1][5] some see them as a natural response to the isolation and fragmentation of modern housing, offering a return to the social bonds and collaborative spirit found in traditionalvillage life.[6]
The multitude of intentional communities includescollective households,cohousing communities,coliving,ecovillages,monasteries,survivalist retreats,kibbutzim,Hutterite colonies,ashrams, andhousing cooperatives.
Ashrams are likely the earliest intentional communities, founded around 1500 BCE.Buddhist monasteries appeared around 500 BCE.[7]Pythagoras founded an intellectual vegetarian commune in about 525 BCE in southern Italy.[8] Hundreds of modern intentional communities were formed across Europe, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand out of the intellectual foment ofutopianism.[8] Intentional communities exhibit the utopian ambition to create a better, more sustainable world for living.[8]
Additional terms referring to an intentional community can bealternative lifestyle,intentional society,cooperative community,withdrawn community,enacted community,socialist colony,communistic society,collective settlement,communal society,commune,mutualistic community,communitarian experiment,experimental community,utopian experiment,practical utopia, andutopian society.[9]
The termutopian community as a synonym for an intentional community might be considered to be of pejorative nature and many intentional communities do not consider themselves to be utopian.[1] Also the alternative termcommune[a] is considered to be non-neutral or even linked toleftist politics orhippies.[11][12][13]
| Authorship | Year | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| B. Shenker | 1986 | "An intentional community is a relatively small group of people who have created a whole way of life for the attainment of a certain set of goals."[1] |
| D. E. Pitzer | 1989 | Intentional communities are"small, voluntary social units partly isolated from the general society in which members share an economic union and lifestyle in an attempt to implement, at least in part, their ideal ideological, religious, political, social, economic, and educational systems".[2] |
| G. Kozeny | 1996 | "An 'intentional community' is a group of people who have chosen to live together with a common purpose, working cooperatively to create a lifestyle that reflects their shared core values. The people may live together on a piece of rural land, in a suburban home, or in an urban neighborhood, and they may share a single residence or live in a cluster of dwellings."[14] |
| W. J. Metcalf | 2004 | An intentional community is"[f]ive or more people, drawn from more than one family or kinship group, who have voluntarily come together for the purpose of ameliorating perceived social problems and inadequacies. They seek to live beyond the bounds of mainstream society by adopting a consciously devised and usually well thought-out social and cultural alternative. In the pursuit of their goals, they share significant aspects of their lives together. Participants are characterized by a "we-consciousness," seeing themselves as a continuing group, separate from and in many ways better than the society from which they emerged."[3] |
The purposes of intentional communities vary and may be political,spiritual, economic, or environmental.[15] In addition to spiritual communities,secular communities also exist.[16] One common practice, particularly in spiritual communities, iscommunal meals.[17]Egalitarian values can be combined with other values.[18]Benjamin Zablocki categorized communities this way:[19]
Members of Christian intentional communities want to emulate the practices of the earliest believers. Using thebiblical book ofActs (and, often, theSermon on the Mount) as a model, members of these communities strive to demonstrate their faith in a corporate context,[20] and to live out the teachings of theNew Testament, practicing compassion and hospitality.[21] Communities such as theSimple Way, theBruderhof andRutba House would fall into this category. Despite strict membership criteria, these communities are open to visitors and not reclusive to the extent of some other intentional communities.[22]
A survey in the 1995 edition of the "Communities Directory", published by theFellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), reported that 54 percent of the communities choosing to list themselves were rural, 28 percent were urban, 10 percent had both rural and urban sites, and 8 percent did not specify.[23]
The most common form ofgovernance in intentional communities isdemocratic (64 percent), with decisions made by some form ofconsensus decision-making or voting. Ahierarchical orauthoritarian structure governs 9 percent of communities, 11 percent are a combination of democratic and hierarchical structure, and 16 percent do not specify.[23]
The central characteristics of communes, or core principles that define communes, have been expressed in various forms over the years. The Suffolk-born radicalJohn Goodwyn Barmby (1820-1881), subsequently aUnitarian minister, invented the term "communitarian"[24][failed verification] in 1840.[25]
At the start of the 1970s,The New Communes author Ron E. Roberts classified communes as a subclass of a larger category ofutopias.[26] He listed three main characteristics:[27]
Twenty-five years later, Dr. Bill Metcalf, in his edited bookShared Visions, Shared Lives, defined communes as having the following core principles:[28][page needed]
Sharing everyday life and facilities, a commune is an idealized form offamily, being a new sort of"primary group" (generally with fewer than 20 people, although there are examples of much larger communes). Commune members have emotional bonds to the whole group rather than to any sub-group,[citation needed] and the commune is experienced with emotions that go beyond justsocial collectivity.[29]
With the simple definition of a commune as an intentional community with 100% income sharing, the online directory of theFellowship for Intentional Community (FIC)[30] lists 222 communes worldwide (28 January 2019).[31] Some of these are religious institutions such asabbeys andmonasteries. Others are based inanthroposophic philosophy, includingCamphill villages that provide support for the education, employment, and daily lives of adults and children withdevelopmental disabilities,mental health problems or otherspecial needs.[32]
Many cultures naturally practice communal or tribal living, and would not designate their way of life as a planned "commune" per se, though their living situation may have many characteristics of a commune.
InAustralia, many intentional communities started with the hippie movement and those searching for social alternatives to the nuclear family. One of the oldest continuously running communities is called "Moora Moora Co-operative Community"[33] with about 47 members (Oct 2021). Located at the top ofMount Toolebewong, 65 km east of Melbourne, Victoria at an altitude of 600–800 m, this community has been entirely off the electricity grid since its inception in 1974. Founding members still resident include Peter and Sandra Cock.
Utopian communities were established in Canada atBrights Grove, Ontario, Holberg, BC andRuskin, BC. The Finnish settlement atSointula, on Malcolm Island, BC, is a well-known historical Canadian utopian settlement. An Ontario Quaker sect,The Children of Peace, formed a utopian farm settlement at the community of Hope (now Sharon) in East Gwillimbury, York Region, which operated from 1825 to 1889. Prairie activistE.A. Partridge discussed the possibilities of a utopian co-operative commonwealth called "Coalsamao" in his bookA war on poverty: the one war that can end war.[34]
As well, other settlements were established ontemperance,Henry George,Tolstoyan,Doukhobor,Orthodox Mennonite andHutterite principles.[35][36]
Several intentional settlements exist today in Canada.
The first wave ofutopian communities in Germany began during a period of rapid urbanization between 1890 and 1930. At least about 100 intentional communities are known to have started,[37] but data is unreliable.[38] The communities often pursuednudism,vegetarian andorganic agriculture, as well asanabaptism,theosophy,anarchism,socialism,eugenics or other religious and political ideologies. Historically, German emigrants were also influential in the creation of intentional communities in other countries, such as theBruderhof in the United States of America andKibbutzim in Israel.In the 1960s, there was a resurgence of communities calling themselves communes, starting with theKommune 1 inBerlin, without knowledge of or influence by previous movements.[39]A large number of contemporary intentional communities define themselves as communes, and there is a network of political communes called "Kommuja"[40] with about 40 member groups (May 2023).
In the German commune book,Das KommuneBuch, communes are defined by Elisabeth Voß as communities which:[41]
Kibbutzim inIsrael, (sing., kibbutz) are examples of officially organized communes, the first of which were based on agriculture. Other Israeli communities areKvutza,Yishuv Kehilati,Moshavim andKfar No'ar. Today, there are dozens of urban communes growing in the cities of Israel, often calledurban kibbutzim. The urban kibbutzim are smaller and moreanarchist.[42] 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 ofzionist-socialist youth movements, likeHaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed,HaMahanot HaOlim andHashomer Hatsair.[43]
In 1831 John Vandeleur (a landlord) established a commune on hisRalahine Estate atNewmarket-on-Fergus,County Clare. Vandeleur asked Edward Thomas Craig, an English socialist, to formulate rules and regulations for the commune. It was set up with a population of 22 adult single men, 7 married women and their 7 husbands, 5 single women, 4 orphan boys and 5 children under the age of 9 years. No money was employed, only credit notes could be used in the commune shop. All occupants were committed to a life with no alcohol, tobacco, snuff or gambling. All were required to work for 12 hours a day during the summer and from dawn to dusk in winter. The social experiment prospered for a time, and 29 new members joined.
However, in 1833 the experiment collapsed due to the gambling debts of John Vandeleur. The members of the commune met for the last time on 23 November 1833 and placed on record a declaration of "the contentment, peace and happiness they had experienced for two years under the arrangements introduced by Mr. Vandeleur and Mr. Craig and which through no fault of the Association was now at an end".[44]
Inimperial Russia, the vast majority of Russian peasants held their land in communal ownership within amir community, which acted as a village government and a cooperative.[45][46] 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 theend of communism in Russia,monastic communities have again become more common, populous and, to a lesser degree, more influential in Russian society. Various patterns of Russian behavior —toloka (толока),pomochi (помочи),artel (артель) — are also based on communal ("мирские") traditions.
In the years immediately following therevolutions of 1917Tolstoyan communities proliferated in Russia, but later they were eventually wiped out or stripped of their independence ascollectivisation and ideological purges got under way in the late 1920s.[47] Colonies, such as theLife and Labor Commune, relocated toSiberia to avoid being liquidated. Several Tolstoyan leaders, includingYakov Dragunovsky (1886-1937), were put on trial and then sent to theGulag prison camps.[48]
Some Tolstoyans emigrated to Canada.[49]
In 1991,Afrikaners inSouth Africa founded the controversial Afrikaner-only town ofOrania, with the goal of creating a stronghold for the Afrikaner minority group, the Afrikaans language and the Afrikaner culture.[50] By 2022, the population was 2,500. The town was experiencing rapid growth and the population had climbed by 55% from 2018.[51] They favour a model of strict Afrikaner self-sufficiency and have their own currency, bank and local government, and only employ Afrikaners.[52]
A 19th century advocate and practitioner of communal living was theutopian socialistJohn Goodwyn Barmby, who founded a Communist Church before becoming aUnitarian minister.[53]
The Simon Community inLondon is an example of social cooperation, made to easehomelessness within London. It provides food and religion and is staffed by homeless people and volunteers.[54] Mildly nomadic, they run street "cafés" which distribute food to their known members and to the general public.
TheBruderhof[55] has three locations in the UK.[56] InGlandwr, nearCrymych,Pembrokeshire, a co-op calledLammas Ecovillage focuses on planning andsustainable development. Granted planning permission by theWelsh Government in 2009, it has since created 9 holdings and is a central communal hub for its community.[57] InScotland, theFindhorn Foundation founded byPeter andEileen Caddy andDorothy Maclean in 1962[58] is prominent for its educational centre and experimental architectural community project based at The Park, inMoray, Scotland, near the village ofFindhorn.[59]
TheFindhorn Ecovillage community at The Park, Findhorn, a village in Moray, Scotland, and atCluny Hill inForres, now houses more than 400 people.[60]
Historicagricultural examples include theDiggers settlement onSt George's Hill, Surrey during theEnglish Civil War and theClousden Hill Free Communist and Co-operative Colony nearNewcastle upon Tyne during the 1890s.[61][62]
There is a long history ofutopian communities in America that led to the rise in the communes of thehippie movement—the "back-to-the-land" ventures of the 1960s and 1970s.[63] One commune that played a large role in the hippie movement wasKaliflower, a utopian living cooperative that existed inSan Francisco between 1967 and 1973 built on values offree love andanti-capitalism.
Andrew Jacobs ofThe New York Times wrote in 2006 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".[64] TheFellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) is one of the main sources for listings of and more information about communes in the United States.
Although many American communes are short-lived, some have been in operation for over 50 years. TheBruderhof was established in the US in 1954,[20]Twin Oaks in 1967[65] andKoinonia Farm in 1942.[66] Twin Oaks is a rare example of a non-religious commune surviving for longer than 30 years. A newer intentional community isSynchronicity LA.
Within a commune, the group is experienced with emotions beyond just social collectivity.
We use commune only when referring to communities that share their income and resources completely, or nearly so
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)We are a community of homeless people and volunteers living and working together in a spirit of love, acceptance, tolerance and understanding. We aim to reach out to support and campaign for people who are experiencing homelessness, and particularly those for whom no other provision exists
The Lammas project has been created to pioneer an alternative model for living on the land. It empowers people to explore what it is to live a low-impact lifestyle. It demonstrates that alternatives are possible here and now.
The Findhorn Community was begun in 1962 by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean.
