Community Rules

Posted on di 05 maart 2019 in tools

In social permaculture the community plays a prominent role. Sometime in 2018 I became aware of research done by Dmitry Orlov on communities. He studied communities that last multiple generations; in his words: Communities that abide.

Orlov distilled a set of commandments that communities should obey. I found his list thought provoking and also a bit repetitive.

To tighten and generalize Orlovs findings a bit I rearranged, merged and changed the format from don'ts to recommendations to ignore at your own and your community's peril.

The rules (abridged)

  • the needs of the community come before all else; it is more important than:
    • yourself / your ego
    • neighbors
    • outsiders
  • community values / properties
    • biological relationships / families
    • local / face to face
    • egalitarian (communal, shared resources, not too rich)
    • non-violent
    • easy to leave, hard to join
  • community customs / culture
    • subscribe to common vision / ideology
    • subscribe to common culture / code of conduct
    • group decisions
    • voluntary collective action
    • celebrate together

permaculture social design community