Anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee looks at pioneering experiments in communal living to present a rousing argument for rethinking what we mean by home.
"A must-read" Thomas Piketty
"Just wonderful" Angela Saini
Throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living together, sharing property and raising children. In Everyday Utopia, anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee explores what we can learn from these experiments - from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras to the trail-blazing feminists of the French Revolution, from the cohousing movement in contemporary Denmark to the flourishing ecovillages of Colombia and Portugal.
She shows why utopian thinking is essential to making a fairer world and that many of the best ways of getting there begin at home.
"This warm, intelligent and lucid book takes us on a deep dive into how people have created better systems for living - systems that actually work" Robert Waldinger, author of The Good Life and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development
"Exhilarating. A powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project but also a very serious political one" Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad
"Splendid. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era" Yanis Varoufakis, author of Technofeudalism
"A vision of what our future could be if we dare to dream" Susan Neiman, Left Is Not Woke