The understanding that even the most intimate "community"—your neighborhood, online fandom, support group—isn't a spontaneous organic growth but is actively produced. It's built through shared rituals (book club meetings, forum threads, annual barbecues), defined boundaries (who's in, who's out), and the collective narration of a common identity ("We are the people who..."). The feeling of belonging is the product of this ongoing construction work.
Example: "Our 'tight-knit' downtown wasn't fate. It was built via the Theory of Constructed Communities: a farmers' market organized by a few retirees, a 'First Friday' art walk championed by gallery owners, and a neighborhood watch that turned into a block party. The 'community' was a project. When the main builders moved away, the construction stopped, and the feeling dissolved, proving it wasn't in the bricks but in the doing."
by Abzu Land January 31, 2026
Get the Theory of Constructed Communities mug.The broader skill of understanding the collective identity, shared values, history, and sensitive issues of any defined group, online or offline, from a fanbase for a TV show to a local neighborhood association. It involves recognizing the community's sacred cows, its common enemies, its generational divides, and the appropriate language to use to be seen as an insider rather than a disruptive outsider.
Example: Walking into a tightly-knit fan convention for a niche anime and loudly proclaiming the reboot is superior to the original without testing the waters is a failure to Read the Community. The adept fan knows the community reveres the original, understands the specific grievances with the reboot, and phrases any critique within the accepted framework of shared love.
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 3, 2026
Get the Read the Community mug.A system where the central political and economic unit is the commune—a self-governing community that collectively manages its resources and social life. Communes federate with each other for larger projects. This model is deeply associated with anarchist and utopian socialist thought, envisioning a confederation of autonomous, directly democratic communities replacing the nation-state.
Example: The Paris Commune of 1871, though brief, was the iconic attempt at Communal Democracy. Paris was reorganized into a federation of wards, each with its own assembly, recallable delegates, and integrated military and administrative functions, aiming to create a decentralized republic of communes across France.
by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026
Get the Communal Democracy mug.An umbrella term for democratic models that root political legitimacy and decision-making processes in pre-existing or intentionally formed communities, defined by geography, ethnicity, workplace, or shared interest. The community, not the abstract individual citizen, is the primary political actor. This approach often emphasizes consensus-building and cultural traditions over majoritarian voting.
Example: Many Indigenous governance systems, such as the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy’s Grand Council, operate on principles of Community-Based Democracy. Representatives (sachems) from each clan and nation deliberate with a mandate from their community, aiming for consensus in a system deeply tied to cultural and spiritual practices.
by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026
Get the Community-Based Democracy mug.Essentially synonymous with Communal Democracy, emphasizing the commune as the foundational cell. The term often carries a stronger connotation of the commune being an integrated social and economic unit, not just a political one, practicing collective ownership and mutual aid internally.
Example: The theoretical vision of Murray Bookchin’s Communalism or Libertarian Municipalism advocates for a Commune-Based Democracy. Neighborhood assemblies would form the base, federating into confederations to manage regional affairs, replacing the state with a networked system of directly democratic, ecological communes.
by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026
Get the Commune-Based Democracy mug.An institution that inverts the typical Western memorialization of communism's victims. It documents those killed, persecuted, or whose progressive social projects were destroyed by anti-communist violence: victims of US-backed right-wing dictatorships in Latin America and Asia, victims of the Red Scares and blacklisting, and casualties of wars (like in Korea and Vietnam) framed as necessary to "contain" communism. It argues anti-communism has been a more prolific and less-accounted-for killer.
Victims of Anti-communism Memorial Foundation Example: The foundation's archive would highlight figures like Salvador Allende of Chile or Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, not as failed leaders, but as primary Victims of Anti-communism, assassinated with Western complicity to crush socialist experiments, with the subsequent dictatorships producing millions more victims in their wake.
by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026
Get the Victims of Anti-communism Memorial Foundation mug.An educational project rooted in anarchist and libertarian socialist traditions, focusing on the practical and philosophical knowledge needed to build and sustain autonomous communes, intentional communities, and directly democratic assemblies. It teaches conflict resolution, consensus decision-making, ecological stewardship, and communal economics, emphasizing prefigurative politics—building the new society in the shell of the old.
Foundation for Communal Education Example: The foundation might operate a "Communal Lab"—a network of rural and urban land projects where participants learn hands-on skills in permaculture, off-grid energy, cooperative management, and horizontal assembly governance, embodying the education it preaches.
by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026
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