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Well, they share many reasons (but not all). So they are largely compatible and should help each other.
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Statist wouldn't be accurate but a couple of their reasons do overlap with statists regarding bad actors.
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Can't answer that as I am a Library Socialist.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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Anarchism and Social Ecology
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Anarchism
Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.
Social Ecology
Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.
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Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.
~ Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom
People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as some sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.
~Anonymous, but quoted by Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
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I am a ... fan ... of social ecology etc. But I feel such theories are difficult to apply in today's large-scale politics. Even the path to trying out any such theories in practice probably starts with trying smaller changes like liquid democracy (that is already proven in the corporate shareholder world).
These theories might go through massive changes if they meet reality. Remnants of past "experiments", say the basis of Liedloff's continuum concept, are not quite as neat as these untested theories.
I am a ... fan ... of social ecology etc. But I feel such theories are difficult to apply in today's large-scale politics. Even the path to trying out any such theories in practice probably starts with trying smaller changes like liquid democracy (that is already proven in the corporate shareholder world).
These theories might go through massive changes if they meet reality. Remnants of past "experiments", say the basis of Liedloff's continuum concept, are not quite as neat as these untested theories.
It's a subcategory of Anarchism, similar to how Syndicalism is one. Some more purist Anarchist consider it a lesser form as it does include some state like characteristics at municipal level, and on the other hand the person who is maybe most well known for Communalism (Murray Bookchin) decided to denounce Anarchism, because of (old man yells at kids playing on his lawn) "lifestyle anarchists".
I don't agree with everything Bookchin said, but I believe that this is mostly due to the info that was available at the time (it's the ecology of freedom that I have in mind). At the same time, I really like his openness to look for new ways for social change. To my understanding, this is how he got to anarchy.
If I got this right, through his book social anarchism or lifestyle anarchim he actually denounced the path anarchy was taking: abandoning collective freedom practices, for personal freedom. I agree with this point, because imo, the important thing is to create societies that are organised in such a way (horizontaly, bottom-up etc) that nurture people so we can explore our full potential as humans. For me, the goal is not to do what I want at all times.
So he came up with social ecology and communalism, as a solution to the problems he found that contemporary anarchism had/has. And Rojava came along.
I dunno, at least this is my super-brief understanding so far.
I think realistically the two are about different time horizons. Anarchism is when the protocols are in our heads. It's how we live. Communalism, to some extent, is about existing in a world where the implied violence of the system will shut down any "pure" anarchism. Create structure so the hierarchies know how to deal with it.
Sometimes it's not even about hostility. People just can't imagine a world without what exists today. Just having anarchism in your head is revolutionary.
on the other hand the person who is maybe most well known for Communalism (Murray Bookchin) decided to denounce Anarchism, because of (old man yells at kids playing on his lawn) "lifestyle anarchists".
Glad to hear nothing ever changes lmao "these new punks are only in it for aesthetics!"
It's all posers man. It's about the ideas, not the tags.
Vs? Nah, anarchism + communalism. They are very compatible. You can have local organizations structured on anarchist principles that facilitate the flow of resources in commonalist ways. Tool Libraries, Housing Cooperatives, Community Cafeterias, worker collectives, etc.
To my understanding, communalism is approximate to collectivism, prioritizing the community over the individual, working toward communal benefit. Anarchism is effectively a negative position, no one can have authority over someone else. It is technically possible for a group to be focused on mutual benefit without a hierarchy. It's just hard to start/maintain.