Would the Amish be considered an intentional community? They've somehow managed to keep their community together and functional across the generations, and in the face of enormous technological and cultural upheaval.
it's helpful to distinguish intentional community from commune. the amish have private property so there is maybe more incentive to accumulate intergenerational wealth.
they also withhold secondary education from their children and pressure them to marry and reproduce at a young age, so staying in the community quickly becomes their only realistic option if they want to feed their family.
Interestingly, none of the communities I was referring to in my previous comment were based on religion (with the exception of one that was loosely christian-pacifist).
Perhaps where religion is involved the outcome may be different.
I think the article touches on how the Amish avoid this 'problem' - the threat of ostracism from the (probably exceptionally tight-knit) social group keeps younger generations bound to the community.
Barely at times. The attrition rate (not staying within the community) for the Amish can be quite high, and the only way to "share" generation over generation is to subdivide property.
If you tried to start the Amish now it'd never last, it's too large a leap. But the Amish society evolved slowly over time much like others. If you went back to the early days then the Amish wouldn't be that different to others around them. It's just that there was a bit of a split and our societies have evolved in parallel since then under the influence of different values.
