Exploring the Commonist Tendency: A Likert Scale Approach to Assessing Transformative Social Practices in the ‘Actually Existing Pluriverse’ of Progressive Alternatives

This paper introduces a new Likert scale as a measurement tool to operationalize the concept of “commonist tendency” within the context of transformative forces. The scale was developed based on the definition provided by Hosseini (2023a) and was piloted in 2019 at a community workshop focused on strengthening the local economy and supporting community well-being. Subsequently, a national survey was conducted in 2021 in which the scale was utilized and tested in terms of validity and reliability. The commonist tendency refers to a meta-ideological inclination shared among actors within the pluriverse of transformative forces. It transcends the compartmentalization of social life into distinct categories, emphasizing the deep entanglement of economic, ecological, political, and social domains. The scale can be used to measure the level of commonist tendency among initiatives and activist organizations by assessing their alignment with four progressive processes: equalization, ecologization, democratization, and socialization. The scale consists of 16 statements representing the decompartmentalizing processes within the economy, ecology, politics, and community. The findings provide insights into the level of commonist tendency among actors and contribute to the understanding of transformative approaches within the pluriverse.