Most people know little about intentional communities, and what they think they know is often wrong. Metcalfe discusses some of these preconceptions and why they are inaccurate. Intentional communities have been recorded over two and a half millennia and are anything but a modern phenomenon. Moreover, their membership and goals are quite diverse. What defines intentional communities is an attempt to live beyond the bounds of mainstream society by adopting a consciously devised and usually well thought-out social and cultural alternative. Finally, Metcalf considers what makes an intentional community successful.
DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/6178