Commune

Commune Definition

A commune generally denotes a self-selecting group of people who live and work together, sharing some or all of their possessions, and assisting each other with domestic tasks and child-rearing. Historically, the term has encompassed various concepts, including utopian communities seeking to establish a new social order based on an ideal vision, territorial administrative units used in historical contexts such as the French Revolution, and collective agricultural arrangements. In political sociology, the commune is often viewed as a secular institution characterised by collective labour and common ownership, guided by shared ideologies like communism or anarchism. Sociological interest focuses particularly on these communal experiments to investigate how behavioural patterns and power relations are transformed within more egalitarian settings, examining issues of social organisation, economic subsistence, and institutionalised life.

Historical and Political Context

The term has multiple historical applications. It refers to the revolutionary government established in Paris between 1870 and 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War, which is regarded as a landmark event in the history of revolutions. Other historical references include the agricultural collectives established in China during the Great Leap Forward under Mao Zedong, and the Israeli kibbutzim, which emerged as an attempt to forge a new way of living following the Holocaust.

Sociological Focus

Sociological analysis of communes often concentrates on the attempt to create new, shared, egalitarian relationships. Researchers examine whether communal life successfully alters established power dynamics, including those related to gender, and how these groups manage fundamental social problems such as stratification and economic survival from inception. A typology developed by Andrew Rigby categorises communes based on their function, including self-actualising, mutual support, activist, practical, therapeutic, and religious forms.

Dynamics and Survival

Most communal experiments have proven short-lived, often failing to sustain the utopian expectations or succumbing to internal divisions. Successful communes have generally developed mechanisms to manage potential conflict and isolate themselves from external influences. Threats to survival include members being seduced by the outside world and internal fragmentation. Some groups, such as the Shakers, demonstrated that failure to maintain basic requirements for self-reproduction could lead to the complete dissolution of the community.