Who holds this, and can they be removed?
When communities fall apart, it is rarely because people stopped caring. The closest thing to a count found two causes out in front: internal dispute and economic failure (Sosis & Bressler, 2003, 83 communes coded). Underneath both sit the questions this tool asks: who owns the land, who is allowed to say no, whose work goes unseen. Seven plain questions show you where a community is strong, and where it could break.
This looks at how a community is built, not at how kind it feels. A loving community can still lose its land if one person is able to sell it. Better to see that early, while it is still easy to change.
What shape is this community, roughly?
Why this matters
Each form of community tends to fail in its own characteristic place. Knowing the shape sharpens the reading; skipping is fine.
Why this matters
How this community is held
Four labels, no total score. Held means a real structure protects it, not just good will. Soft means it works until it is tested. Open means nothing is stopping it. Unknown counts too: what a community cannot answer about itself is usually the first place to look.
None of these is just theory. Each is a real way that communities protect what they share. The ones that fit your soft and open answers are highlighted; the others are here for when you need them.
One last question, and it isn't in the instrument: could this readout be read aloud at a community meeting? If it could, you're holding something rare. If it couldn't, that is a finding too, and probably the first one to work on.