Everyday Utopia - In Praise of Radical Alternatives to the Traditional Family Home

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 Developmet

‘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