Communes - Definition and Overview

A commune is a system of social and economic organization which involves the common ownership of resources and/or shared obligations. Within that framework, the word can have various meanings:

• An administrative subdivision of various European countries, including France; comprises cities, towns and villages
• A Medieval commune, a social organization that appeared in the European High Middle Ages
• A kibbutz
• Commune: a kind of intentional community
• People's communes, formerly an administrative division of the People's Republic of China.
• The Paris Commune, brief socialist reformist state in Paris from March 26 to May 30, 1871
• The Shanghai Commune, organized by Zhang Chunqiao in 1967
• The Pinnacle Commune, founded by Rastafarian preacher Leonard Howell

When used as a verb, to commune means to receive the Eucharist

See also: Communism, Communalism and Communitarianism