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Glossary and Site References
As with any subject, the more that intentional community is studied the more detailed the field will become, and the more our language must be extended to express the acquired understanding.
Humanity has much experience with authoritarian forms of government and with competition in monetary economies, as evidenced by the number of related terms and volumes of writings on these subjects. If participatory governance along with gifting and sharing economies were to enjoy a similar degree of favor in human society, we might expect that our vocabulary for describing these cultural preferences would be similarly extensive. The fact that this is not the case presents the opportunity and need for developing new theories and coining new terms for understanding and explaining a world view or lifestyle paradigm that is continually developing.
This website started with the help of an online guide is a contribution to the understanding of intentional community. All of the words, terms, acronyms, theories, models and matrices presented here have been, as far as is known, coined or invented by the author. Dates refer to PDF documents on this website, listed in the references, below. This glossary and reference list also appears in the PDF file, Gifting and Sharing.
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Anti-Altruismegoism; selfishness; supporting possessiveness and competition to the exclusion of gifting and sharing (2007)
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Anti-Quotaformerly used to refer to voluntary labor-gifting (1999), then changed to refer to required fair-share labor systems without labor quotas (2007)
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Balance Trenda tendency toward a stable balance of common and private ownership structures in economic systems (1991)
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Circumstantial Communitya group of people living in proximity by chance, such as in a city, neighborhood or village, the residents of which may or may not individually choose to be an active participant in the association; contrasts with intentional community (1991)
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Communal Privacy Theoryincreasing levels of privacy, afforded by additional resources or powers being entrusted to individuals, does not reduce the community's level of communalism, as long as the equity or ultimate responsibility remains under communal ownership and control (1991)
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Communal Sharing Theorythe greater the experience people have of sharing among themselves, the greater will be their commitment to the community thus formed; sharing in this context relates to thoughts, beliefs, ideals, feelings, and emotions, as well as to material objects, leadership, power (1991)
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Communitarian Continuumrelative measure in a linear representation of different types of intentional communities according to their form of ownership of wealth, from common to private (1991)
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Communitarian Luxuriesbenefits or desirable amenities which cannot be purchased yet which may be secured by living in community, such as: "trust luxury," "social luxury," "spiritually-correct luxury," etc (1996)
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Communitarian Matrixsee Ownership/Control Matrix
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Communitarian Mystiquemystery and reverence accompanying the ideal of living in community; contrasted with "domestic mystique" (1999)
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Communitarian Relationships Modela three-dimensional representation of the various forms of intentional community, incorporating the political-economic, political-spiritual and spiritual-economic matrices (1991)
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Consideration of Functionthe accommodation of situations in which an intentional community may appear to be structured in a particular way due to regular activities, while upon dissolution or the resignation of membership the community operates in a different manner; for example, some communities may operate as though all assets are commonly owned, while upon dissolution assets are divided among the members to become private property, which contrasts with true communalism in which no residual assets are distributed to members (1991)
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Creed of Sharingthe belief that sharing is among the highest values and moral imperatives
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Culture Magicthe art of changing culture at will (1994, Hole in the Stone:A Journal of Wiccan Life)
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Debt-Based Economicsmonetary economy in which money is created by debt (1997)
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Economically-Diverse Communityeconomic system incorporating both commonly-owned and privately-owned property (1991)
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Egalitarian Collectivisma political-economic structure involving participatory governance with an economic system involving only privately-owned property (1991)
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Egalitarian Commonwealtha political-economic structure involving participatory governance with an economic system incorporating both commonly-owned and privately-owned property (1991)
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Egalitarian Communalisma political-economic structure involving participatory governance with an economic system involving only commonly-owned property (1991)
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Equity-Linked Affinity Network (ÉLAN)a network of people sharing an investment in one or more pieces of real estate as a form of intentional community (2005, May)
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Exchange Economiesany economic system involving the transfer or exchange of commodities or any unit of value from one person to another (1997)
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Fair-Share Labor Systemslabor requirement in an intentional community with no accounting, often but not necessarily with full-time positions and gender-specific work roles (2003)
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Happiness Ethica moral value affirming that the well being of others is important to the securing of one's own happiness; similar to the reciprocity ethic (2005, Culture Magic website)
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Integration Trendsee Balance Trend
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Intentional Handdeliberate effort to create community with gifting or sharing systems; contrasts with Adam Smith's concept of the invisible hand using exchanging and taking systems (2007)
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Intentioneeringthe effort to build intentional community; coined from elements of "intentional community" and "behavioral engineering" (1999)
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Labor-Giftingno minimum labor requirement; from-one-to-others or one-way; pure altruism (2006)
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Labor-Sharingrequires a labor contribution either as a fair-share or a labor-quota system (2003)
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Landed Rainbow1. unity of Heaven/spirituality/transcendance and Earth/materialism/immanence;
2. application of values of the Rainbow Family of Living Light experienced in Rainbow Gatherings to use in creating intentional community with legal control of land (2006)
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Lifestyles of Gifting and Sharingintentional communities using labor-gifting or labor-sharing (2007)
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Lifestyles of the Just and Joyous!any form of intentional community other than authoritarian; contrasted with "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
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Material Spiritualityliving in the material world consistent with spiritual ideals (1993)
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Multi-Faith Reciprocity Ethic and the Spirit of Communalismrecognition that most religions agree on the concept of the Golden Rule and that this maxim is expressed in communal sharing; contrasted with "Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (2006)
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Ownership/Control Matrixa two-dimensional model of political-economic structures, with common to private ownership on the horizontal axis and participatory to authoritarian political structures on the vertical axis, and a mid-range for each, resulting in nine different political/economic systems; also called "Intentional Community Matrix," "Communitarian Matrix," "Political/Economic Matrix" (1991)
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Parallel Culturea network of cultural alternatives involving gifting, sharing and/or exchanging on any cultural level, from a given locality such as a metropolitan area to world-wide (1999)
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Plenty Paradigmthe optimistic view of a natural abundance in economic systems, based upon gifting & sharing in contrast to exchanging & taking (1997)
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Political/Spiritual Matrixa two-dimensional model combining forms of spiritual beliefs (see the spiritual/economic matrix) on the horizontal axes with forms of governance from participatory to authoritarian on the vertical axis; one of three matrices in the communitarian relationships model (1991)
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Pluralist-Belief Structureacceptance of a range of different beliefs, whether political, spiritual or other; typically found in secular, open societies; inclusive; integrationist; participatory; expressed individuality (1999)
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Pod Communitiesintentional communities in which different sub-groups maintain different economic and social agreements
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Process Trendthe tendency toward increasing degrees of participation in governmental systems (1991)
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Pure Altruismcontrasted with rational altruism, see Labor-Gifting (2006)
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Rational Altruismcontrasted with Adam Smith's concept of "rational self-interest," and used in the definition of Labor-Quota (1997)
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Scarcity Paradigmthe pessimistic view in economic systems based upon artificial scarcity in the creation of markets; involves exchanging and taking in contrast with gifting and sharing (1997)
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Sharing Economiessee Labor-Sharing (2003)
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Sharing-to-Privacy Continuuma table presenting aspects of communitarian culture, constructed with the communitarian continuum and examples of intentional communities along the horizontal axis, and a range of cultural factors on the vertical axis, including interpersonal relationships, childcare programs, architectural and land use design, labor and managerial systems, and property codes (1991)
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Spiritual/Economic Matrixa two-dimensional model combining forms of spirituality with forms of the ownership of wealth; common to private ownership on the horizontal axis and belief structures from "minimal spiritual emphasis and no spiritual leader, secular community" to "strong spiritual emphasis, spiritual leaders and spiritual uniformity" on the vertical axis, and a mid-range for each, resulting in nine different spiritual/economic systems; corresponds closely with the political/economic matrix; one of three matrices comprising the communitarian relationships model (1991)
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Time-Based Economicsany economic system in which time is used exclusively as a unit of measure, including labor exchanges, time-based currencies, labor-gifting and labor-exchanging (1997)
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Timeline of Communitarianismgraphical presentation of intentional communities and utopian studies literature (1981)
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Unified-Belief Structurerequired belief in a particular political, spiritual or other concept or creed; dogmatism; closed society; classism; exclusive; isolationist; suppressed individuality (1999)
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Waves of Communitarianismsuccessive high-points in numbers of intentional communities and movements organized in American history (1981)
ReferencesDocuments by A. Allen Butcher free for download as PDF files from this site:
- 1982. Community and Cooperation. Self-published. (not available here)
- 1983, revised 1992. Community, Inc.: Legal Incorporation for Intentional Community. Self-published.
- 1991. Classifications of Communitarianism: Sharing, Privacy and the Ownership and Control of Wealth. Self-published.
- 1992, January. Introduction to Intentional Community: The Concept, Value and History of Intentional Cultural Design. Self-published.
- 1992, April, revised 1996. Democracy and Capitalism: Are They Critical Elements of a Climax Human Culture? Self-published.
- 1993. Spiritual Evolution: Articles of Faith. Self-published.
- 1996, Summer. "CoHousing as an American Luxury." CoHousing. (not available here)
- 1997. Time-Based Economics: A Community Building Dynamic. Self-published.
- 1999. Intentioneering the Parallel Culture. Self-published.
- 2001. Geonomics and Community Power: The Enironmental and Public Benefits of Taxing Unearned Income. Self-published.
- 2001, revised 2004. Light and Shadows: Interpersonal and Group Process in the Sharing Lifestyle. Self-published.
- 2003. “Communal Economics.” Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World. Christensen, Karen and David Levinson (editors). Sage Publications.
- 2005, May. ÉLAN: Equity-Linked Affinity Network. Self-published.
- 2005, August. Mass Movement Manual: Shared Leadership in our Time of Change. Self-published.
- 2006. Landed Rainbow: An Allegory Presenting Lifestyles of Gifting and Sharing. Self-published.
- 2007. Gifting and Sharing: Living the Plenty Paradigm in Cohousing and Communal Society. Self-published.
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