Alternative Societies

The book goes beyond analysis and critique of current society to look at alternative societies – in theory and practice, internationally, what they could be, and their real possibilities. It looks at a wide range of alternatives from communism to co-ops and participatory communities, a slower society with less work, eco-localism, digital alternatives, alternative education, communal alternatives to the family, food counterculture and freeganism, alternative social centres, alternatives to prison, social democracy and the welfare state, and decolonial and Global South alternatives. It covers Left-wing, Right-wing, Marxist, ecological, anti-racist and feminist perspectives. The book analyses particular themes that arise from these alternatives: utopianism, pluralist socialism, democratizing the economy, and alternative globalization. The book argues against dichotomies and polarizations that often characterize perspectives in this area and argues for a pluralist multilevel approach to alternatives – local, bottom-up, national, international, and global – and the combining of often counterposed alternatives – utopian and materialist, socialist and liberal, particular and general. The book is unique in the range and internationalism of alternatives it covers, and it advocates a distinctive pluralist and open approach. It argues for a pluralist democratic socialism. It is written in an accessible and readable way for students, experts, activists, and lay readers.