Tristan da Cunha offers the world a special social and economic organisation evolved over the years, but based on the principles set out by William Glass in 1817 when he established a settlement based on equality. All Tristan families are farmers, owning their own stock and tending Potato Patches and settlement gardens around houses built by themselves or by their ancestors. All land is communally owned, and stock numbers are strictly controlled to both conserve pasture and to prevent better off families accumulating wealth. No 'outsiders' are allowed to buy land or settle on Tristan - despite many applications to join a society referred to as 'Utopia'.

Flexible Working Tristan da Cunha has a model of flexible working which is the envy of many people stuck in a career routine. All people (including children and pensioners) are involved in farming whilst adults additionally have salaried jobs working either for the fishing company and / or the Government or a small number in domestic service. It would not be unusual for a man to have a salaried job working for a Government Department, and also be paid to fish part-time in good weather during the season. He would expect to take days off to build or repair his own house, or to volunteer to help with a neighbour's repair. Family groups would take a few days off in the summer for a Nightingale hunting and gathering trip or a trip to The Caves for a 'holiday', Stony Beach for cattle or Sandy Point for apples. Women are employed in a wide range of Government jobs, also working part-time processing crawfish in the factory on fishing days or in domestic service. Whilst many jobs which appear by tradition to be exclusively male or female, several Heads of Department are women, and the island has a tradition of women in leading roles, including at various times the Chief Islander and the Head of St Mary's School.