Everyday Utopia

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.