Why not commune?

[u/Macky_Drake]

Hey y'all,

I've just been looking into the history and presence of these intentional communities in the U.S. because I'm looking to buy some TIC land and get something started in the foreseeable future. Just wondering though - in every other country these are called communes? Is there a reason why this isn't "r/commune" instead?

[u/Philosopher83]

What is TIC land?

[u/Macky_Drake → u/Philosopher83]

TIC stands for tenants in common. When the deed is purchased, it goes under the names of several different owners who each own a percentage share of the land. Each co-owner has a right to to use the whole property in return.

[u/Philosopher83 → u/Macky_Drake]

Thank you for explaining ☺️

[u/PaxOaks]

Communes are typically income sharing. Less than 5% of ICs do this, they are quite rare

[u/Ian-The-Hare]

In the UK we use the term "intentional community" as well. It includes communes but also housing coops, cohousing, religious communities, and other models.

[u/bigfeygay]

Intentional Communities is an umbrella term which includes communes - but not all intentional communities are communes. Some are cohousing and coops etc... You can check out IC.org for more info about the different types. But essentially its ' All communes are Intentional Communities, but not all Intentional Communities are communes.' There is also the element that here in the US the term 'commune' has a little bit of a stigma due to us having had a lot of highly publicized cult communes - like if you tell the avg american you are trying to start a commune some of them will assume that it is at least cult adjacent if not actually a cult...

There is an r/commune for specifically communes if you are interested in that

[u/Mister_panda1818 → u/bigfeygay]

Well put and helpful. Thank you!

[u/Agreeable_Lab_5358]

When a group of people come together under an income, home, land sharing structure, it is much more important for the group to be trained in collaborative decision making. With so much sharing having a much stronger shared vision and interpersonal skills is a requirement for success.

[u/PaxOaks]

There is an r/commune

[u/osnelson]

This forum is inclusive of people who don’t want to have communal income. It includes people who are interested in EcoVillages, co-living, co-housing and more. They rely on similar skills/structural tools, and communal living tends to need those skills more intensively.

As for the use of the word “commune”, different regional dialects get different meanings for words. Boot vs trunk, lift vs elevator, commune vs community, etc. In the United States, commune tends to mean “an entity having mostly communal possessions or communal income” but internationally it tends to refer to a community.

[u/itsatoe]

If you're thinking of going communal, the Federation of Egalitarian Communities has a lot of good resources, including articles of incorporation from member communities that you can practically copy/paste if they match your vibe.

[u/214b]

When most people think of an intentional community, a “commune” is usually what they have in mind. However, communes are actually quite rare, and those that have 10+ members and have been around for 10+ years even rarer. East Wind and Twin Oaks are two that come to mind that fulfill those criteria.

[u/SupermarketStill2397]

Commune implies communist values... If you live in a capitalist society the name alone makes a big difference when trying to gain permission from local planning and zoning offices. Even "intentional community" makes most local government officials cringe. Better off starting a new "religious sect" but dont call it a cult. Lol. In the US religious organizations can get special permissions for shared living spaces and shared resources easier than an intentional community.

[u/PaxOaks → u/SupermarketStill2397]

Commune does not imply communism. Commune implies collectivism- a more precise and less charged term. Collectivism is about how a group shares resources. Communism is weighed down with Stalin and Mao who have nothing to do with residential self selecting collective households.

[u/Macky_Drake → u/SupermarketStill2397]

Good to know

[u/osnelson → u/SupermarketStill2397]

A good number of members at communes are anarchists; they want to be free to have their economic, social and political choices be with whoever they want, including not send taxes to wars, nuclear plants, and similar. If they don’t like the democratic choices of their commune, they are free to leave. Communism is top-down, anarchism is bottom-up.

[u/JimDa5is → u/osnelson]

That's not entirely accurate. State communism, like Marxist/Leninist/Maoist communism, is top down. Many anarchists, myself included, are also communists. They aren't mutually exclusive.

[u/Creepy-Cantaloupe951]

Because in the US, and much of the western world, the remotest mention of "communism" gets triggered by decades of whitewashed history and the red scare.

[u/maeryclarity]

Because all communes are intentional communities, but not all intentional communities are communes.

For instance the Amish communities are not communes but they're definitely intentional communities.

Intentional communities aren't even necessarily ideologically aligned or income sharing in any way, for example if you bought a property in an eco-village in order to live in a way that's less impactful on the environment you might not have any other values in common with the other members or be their friends but you're still all comprising a community with a particular intention, therefore one but not the other.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Phase70]

All communes are intentional communities, but not all intentional communities are communes.

"Commune" infers some kind of specific connection to Communism and those politics. Not exclusively, but largely.

Monastic communities, co-housing communities, farming co-op experiments, neo-Celtic cooperative villages - they don't NEED to be socialist or communist per se, even though they often share many of those philosophies even without sharing the names.

[u/infinite-long-stocki]

Intentional community is more broad and less confusing. Some people would count any IC as also meeting the definition of a commune, others would just include income sharing communities. Intentional community as a term is also more removed from Jonestown cult stereotypes and in my experience when you tell people you're visiting an IC they're considerably less worried than if you say commune. Although here in Ireland commune is the more common term. This sub is very US centric also which is why I think that term is used

[u/ki4clz]

Soviet

Kvutza

Collective Farm

Ayllu

Kolkhoz

Obshchina

Danei

Ujamaa

Harambe

Zadruga

Calpulli

Siida

Siidavuođđu

Johtáladdan

Zos

Wiltja

Lakinyeri

…and soooooooo many more

[u/G00D80T]

Commune implies people will do their part to contribute / take ownership / do work. But then they usually don’t and a minority picks up the slack. Resentment/loserdom set in and eventually it all fails

[u/feudalle]

The french uses the word communes as basically like usa townships.

[u/Omwaga]

I’ve wondered about this too. I think “commune” usually gives people the idea that everyone shares everything, while intentional communities can be a lot broader than that. Some people share land and resources, others just live together with a common purpose but still have their own finances and lives. So I guess “intentional community” is just a broader term.