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Communitarian movements attract to themselves many if not most of the new and progressive ideas of the times, often developing them into aspects of culture which then influences change within the dominant culture. Those ideas may arise in the dominant culture, or may be adapted from indigenous tribal cultures, or from foreign cultures, or from within the intentional community movement itself. From where ever the ideas come, in community they are developed in the context of small-scale human society, with relevant or appropriate versions of the cultural innovations then disseminated to the dominant culture as they prove to be viable. In this way intentional communities serve as “crucibles of culture,” or as Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson wrote in 1986 in their book, Builders of the Dawn: Community Lifestyles in a Changing World, as “research and development” societies, providing along with their criticisms of the dominant culture many constructive solutions to problems of the “outside world.” (McLaughlin and Davidson, p. 40)
