Everyday Utopia cover art

Everyday Utopia

In Praise of Radical Alternatives to the Traditional Family Home

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Everyday Utopia

By: Kristen Ghodsee
Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.06

Buy Now for £12.06

The traditional 'nuclear' family home is a problem: it places unfair and unnecessary burdens on women (and men too), it entrenches inequalities, it entraps us financially and it hinders certain kinds of child development. Also, it doesn't seem to make us very happy.

And yet throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living - from the all-female 'beguinages' of medieval Belgium to the matriarchal ecovillages of contemporary Colombia; from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras, where men and women lived as equals and shared property, to present-day Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra 'alloparents' to help raise children not their own. Some of these experiments burned brightly and briefly; others are living proof of what is possible.

Everyday Utopia upends our assumptions and raises our sights by gathering these and many more inspiring examples together, arguing that many of the most important and effective ways of changing our lives and the world are to be found in the home. The result is a radically hopeful and practical vision of more connected - and contented - ways of living.

©2023 Kristen Ghodsee (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Future Studies Gender Studies Philosophy Politics & Government Social Classes & Economic Disparity Social Sciences Society Sociology Socialism
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

History is made by the dreamers ... A must-read (THOMAS PIKETTY)
Utopia can and ought to be an everyday thing. In every home. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era (YANIS VAROUFAKIS)
Liberating and inspirational ... Kristen Ghodsee's sweeping feminist history of society at its most creative (ADA CALHOUN, author of Why We Can't Sleep)
No reviews yet