The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 36, No. 2 - 49

A Design for an Intentional Democratic Community

duty, perseverance, even honor that characterizes dedication. It is the overriding urge to do something outside of, or beyond the self. While one can be dedicated and not committed, one cannot be committed without being dedicated. Commitment derives from actions. Key actions include self-disclosure, the giving of some of the valued self to the group; sacrifice, the giving-up of something of value for the general welfare of the group or for others in the group; energy output, work as indicated above; and rewards, not by recognition or gaining status symbols, but as expressed in community acceptance and love. It is the awareness of this reciprocal relationship with the community in which what is given and gotten is “seen by the person as expressing his true nature and as supporting his concept of self” (Kanter, 1972).

and reinforces the individual’s sense of community. Regular community gatherings other than business or decision-making sessions that are “both playful and quasi-religious” (Harris, 1970) are important during the early life of the community in building member identification with the whole. Occasional brief meetings to voice feelings of the moment also may lead to an awareness of unmet community needs (Gibb and Gibb, 1967).

Processes
The community must develop effective ways and means to achieve its goals through a number of processes. There must be a means to facilitate the recruitment, inclusion and socialization of members; a mechanism for the establishment of primary groups; communication networks functioning within and without the community; leader and member roles delineated and assigned; and the development of problem-solving and decision-making processes, data collection and evaluation procedures; and system linkage between subgroup, community, and larger social system. Boundaries must be maintained through a system of control. Ways must be found to foster favorable physical, psychological, and social environments. The goals of the community being toward actualization requires the processes also to be actualizing. The elements of actualizing organizations are three-fold (Crookston, 1972, 1973b) and include: (1) symbiosis through articulation of the social contract; (2) democracy in organization that includes a climate of acceptance and trust, free flow of data, consensual decision-making, and a system of control that optimizes individual freedom (Gibb, 1964); (3) continuous self-renewal that includes leader-

Transcendence
While commitment is the urge to go beyond self, transcendence is the realization of it. It is the awareness that the group indeed is greater than the sum of its members. It is the self becoming a part of the common cause, of the larger whole. It is the fulfillment of the social contract. It is expressed through what Maslow (1962) called the “peak experience.”

Communion
Transcendence and commitment need to be ritualized through communion: the sharing and acting out of the oneness of self with community. Peak experiences need to be celebrated as do the milestone events that come from working together, playing together, striving together, even lamenting together. To be physically present within a totally visible community in which common strivings rooted in common values are ritualized both expresses

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 36, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 36, No. 2