In Chapter 3 of the The Tacit Dimension ("A society of explorers") Polanyi's discussion of the scientific community as self-coordination by mutual adjustment, resulting in a mediated consensus defined by emergent shared values in indeterminate renewal through universal intent, shaped by chains of overlapping neighborhoods, in which initial commitment to the ideals requires an act of faith, "growing into coherence," through circles of mutual appreciation, offers an intriguing definition of community that is provisional without being adversarial. (This seems different than the "contest" or "discourse" of postmodernism, if only because of a confidence in the benefits of the collaboration.)

(He writes, quite consciously, in reaction to positivistic empiricist scientists, the hyper-self-conscious push of the existentialists, and the programmatic ideological conformity of the communists.)

Commitment to a "hidden reality" that will only be revealed through exploration.
posted by Lloyd at 2:30 PM

Here is George Julian's free labor vision of the United States, expressed in a bill from 1866 to create homesteads on public lands in Southern states. (Cong. Globe, 38th Cong. 1st sess, p. 1188.)

"Instead of large estates, widely scattered settlements,
wasteful agriculture, popular ignorance, political and social degradation, the decay of literature, the
decline of the manufactures and the arts, contempt for
honest labor, and a pampered aristocracy, we
must have small farms, closely associated communities,
thrifty tillage, free schools, social independence,
a healthy literature, flourishing manufactures
and mechanic arts, respect for honest
labor, and equality of political rights."
posted by Lloyd at 8:17 PM

Perman cites Alex Lichtenstein,"Was the Emancipated Slave a Proletarian? Reviews in American History, Vol. 26, No. 1, The Challenge of American History (Mar., 1998), pp. 124-145
on the emergence of class consciousness on plantations versus factories, suggesting that life on isolated plantations and payment yearly rather than weekly prevented the kind of regular contact that characterized the labor conscious community-building of the factory towns (though see the Daniel Walkowitz Rensalear vs. Cohoes book on the cultural differences also potentially at play in factory towns). There is a pdf in the imbook directory.
posted by Lloyd at 6:52 PM