Nowtopia

by Carlsson, Chris

• ISBN13: 9781904859772
• ISBN10: 1904859771
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: A K Pr Distribution

Summary

Outlaw bicycling, urban permaculture, biofuels, free software, and even the Burning Man festival are windows into a scarcely visible social transformation that is redefining politics as we know it. As capitalism continues to corral every square inch of the globe into its logic of money and markets, new practices are emerging through which people are taking back their time and technological know-how. In small, under-the-radar ways, they are making life better right now, simultaneously building the foundation-technically and socially-for a genuine movement of liberation from market life. Nowtopia uncovers the resistance of a slowly recomposing working class in America. Rarely defining themselves by what they do for a living, people from all walks of life are doing incredible amounts of labor in their "non-work" time, creating immediate practical improvements in daily life. The social networks they create, and the practical experience of cooperating outside of economic regulation, become a breeding ground for new strategies to confront the commodification to which capitalism reduces us all. The practices outlined in Nowtopia embody a deep challenge to the basic underpinnings of modern life, as a new ecologically driven politics emerges from below, reshaping our assumptions about science, technology, and human potential. Chris Carlsson, executive director of the multimedia history project "Shaping San Francisco," is a writer, publisher, editor, and community organizer. He has edited four collections of political and historical essays. He helped launch the monthly bike-ins known as Critical Mass, and was the longtime editor of Processed World magazine.

Author Biography

Chris Carlsson is director of the multimedia history project Shaping San Francisco and was one of the founders, editors and frequent contributors to the magazine Processed World.

Table of Contents

A New Politics of Work	p. 3
Seeds of the New Commons	p. 9
Class Dismissed!	p. 17
"What You See Me Doing, Isn't What I Do"	p. 39
Contesting the Evolution of Science	p. 55
Vacant-Lot Gardeners	p. 81
"Outlaw" Bicycling	p. 115
Free Fuel: The Tinkerer's Grail	p. 157
Virtual Spine of the Commons	p. 185
Burning Man: A Working-Class, Do-It-Yourself World's Fair	p. 213
A Vastly Better World Awaits	p. 235
Notes	p. 253
Selected Bibliography	p. 268
About The Author	p. 272
Index	p. 273
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