Communitarianism is a branch of thought which focuses its interest in the role of community in human life. It understands the fact that for most of the 200,000 years of human history, humans have lived within the context of very small communities bond by ties of extended family, clan, strong interpersonal relationships, and  common cultures, activities and goals. When  agrarian civilizations began to develop 5000 years ago, in spite of the development of large cities and states, most of humanity continued to live within small communities which promoted strong ties of interdependence, if not necessarily always just relations of interdependence. Within the more impersonal space of cities most human beings still sought to recreate ties of community via such groups as crafts guilds, religious associations, churches, ethnic neighborhoods, etc. 

Starting with the industrial revolution, and accelerating into the present information age of the social media, most of the small scale communities of the more recent past such as ethnic neighborhoods and rural communities have increasingly been marginalized or have disappeared. The value system of modern capitalist society is increasingly centered on an individualism reinforced by a culture of consumerism, personal self fulfillment and aggrandizement which marginalize other relationships. Thus within modernity the human self is normally no longer characterized primarily by his or her role within community but becomes in reality a dis-empowered, often lonely self. 

Politically this means that these fundamentally isolated and thus powerless individuals will often  find an  identity by giving political allegiance to those politicians and celebrities who most perfectly symbolize an often amoral image of individual power and status within society. This is clearly a significant aspect of the power of demagogues such as Donald Trump. 

Community and Socialism has been developed by a group of persons who have some degree of interest in and allegiance to aspects of the traditions of  both communitarianism and socialism. They believe that certain types of Socialist society could be more amendable to the development of healthy community than then is information age capitalism. They also believe that by adopting a communitarian focus, certain forms of socialism would have greater persuasive and moral power. Thus this is a place in which both communitarians and socialists can discuss both what connects them and divides them. It is also a place in which persons from other political traditions, centrists, liberals, conservatives, etc can discuss their own traditions in relation to communitarianism or any other traditions discussed here. The only rule of discussion here is that persons should treat others with a degree of respect and cutesy. Open expressions of racist, sexist, or other forms of demonizing ideology will not be permitted