Community-Based Society

A social, economic, and political model where the primary unit of organization, identity, and decision-making is the community—a cohesive group bound by geography, shared culture, mutual aid, or common purpose. This society is structured from the bottom-up, with neighborhoods, villages, or intentional communities holding sovereign authority over their local resources, social norms, and governance. The broader "society" exists as a confederation or network of these autonomous communities, cooperating for large-scale projects but retaining local control. It prioritizes social bonds, ecological sustainability, and collective well-being over individualism and centralized state or corporate power.

Example: The vision of a Community-Based Society is embodied in Murray Bookchin's Libertarian Municipalism, where democratically run town assemblies would form confederations, replacing the nation-state. Real-world glimpses include the Zapatista autonomous municipalities in Chiapas, Mexico, where Indigenous communities govern themselves through local assemblies, collectively owning land and operating their own schools, clinics, and justice systems.

by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026

Commune-Based Society

A specific, radical form of community-based society where the commune is not just a social unit but a fully integrated political and economic entity. In this model, the commune collectively owns and manages all property and means of production within its territory. Work is organized communally, resources are distributed based on need, and all members participate in direct democratic decision-making. Society is a voluntary federation of such self-sufficient, egalitarian communes. It is the structural goal of many anarcho-communists and utopian socialists, rejecting both the market and the state.

*Example: The theoretical endpoint of a Commune-Based Society is often illustrated by the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, which aimed to turn Paris into such a collective entity. A modern small-scale example is the Twin Oaks Intentional Community in Virginia, which operates as a secular, income-sharing commune, though it exists within a larger capitalist state rather than as a federated societal model.*

by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026

Ecological Community Theory / Community Ecology Theory

The direct application of principles from biological ecology to human (or mixed) communities. It examines concepts like keystone species (the pivotal individual or institution), succession (how a community develops after a disturbance), trophic levels (flows of wealth and influence), and symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism between sub-groups). The community is seen as an ecosystem where social species interact.

Ecological Community Theory / Community Ecology Theory Example: In a startup hub, Community Ecology Theory identifies the venture capital firms as keystone species—their removal would collapse the ecosystem. Early visionary founders are pioneer species. The symbiotic relationship between coders and marketers is mutualism. The theory helps map the hidden web of dependencies that dictate the hub's health.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Community Biology Theory

An interdisciplinary framework treating a community as a living biological entity with its own metabolism (resource flows), immune system (defense against external threats), nervous system (communication networks), and life cycle (formation, growth, senescence, death). It uses biological models to diagnose community health, resilience, and pathologies (e.g., "social cancer" like runaway inequality, or "community infection" like a corrupting ideology).

Example: Analyzing a dying rust-belt town through Community Biology Theory: its metabolism (industry) has failed, leading to atrophy; its immune system (social services) is overwhelmed; its neural networks (local newspapers, clubs) are decaying. The prescription isn't just economic, but holistic—treating the town as a sick organism needing metabolic, immune, and neural revival.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Community Natural Selection Theory

The application of Darwin's core principles—variation, heredity, and differential survival—explicitly to communities as super-organisms. It argues that environmental pressures (climate, war, economic competition) naturally select for communities with the most adaptive bundles of institutions, technologies, and social norms. Communities that fail to adapt disintegrate or are absorbed. This frames history as the natural selection of social organisms.

Community Natural Selection Theory Example: Ancient Mesopotamian city-states that developed writing and codified law (adaptive traits) outcompeted and absorbed neighboring tribal societies that relied on oral tradition. Their social "organism" was more fit for complex administration and trade. This Community Natural Selection led to the dominance of a new, more complex community form.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Community Selection Theory

A specific mechanism within community evolution where the fitness of the entire group, not just individuals, becomes the primary unit of selection. Communities with traits that enhance cooperation, resource sharing, and collective defense outcompete or out-survive more selfish or disorganized groups, even if those traits come at a cost to individual members. The theory asks: do communities evolve because it benefits the individuals, or because some communities are simply better at persisting as wholes?

Example: Military units or firefighting crews operate under Community Selection Theory. The unit that drills for self-sacrifice and flawless coordination (a group-level trait) will survive a battle or fire where a group of individually talented but uncoordinated people would perish. The cohesive group is "selected for," even though the trait (readiness for sacrifice) lowers individual fitness.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Community Evolution Theory

The study of how communities change and diversify over time through processes analogous to biological evolution: variation in practices, inheritance of successful norms, and selection pressures from the environment (both physical and social). It posits that communities are not static, but are subject to evolutionary forces where external challenges (resource scarcity, conflict) and internal innovation lead to the "descent with modification" of social structures, with some community forms thriving and others going extinct.

Community Evolution Theory Example: The Amish communities in North America exhibit Community Evolution. Faced with the selection pressure of modern technology, variations emerged: some groups strictly prohibit the grid ("Old Order"), others allow limited tech for business ("New Order"). These "speciated" community types inherit and modify core traditions, showing evolutionary adaptation to a changing cultural environment.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026