Drawing on a lifetime of travel in search of real-world alternatives that work, I describe how communities the world over are creating a replacement, leave-things-better economy from the ground up.
Each chapter is about creative ways to tackle timeless needs that matter: restoring the land, sharing water, making homes, growing food, designing clothes, journeying, and caring for each other. I write of soil restorers and river keepers; seed savers and de-pavers; cloud commuters and e-bike couriers; care farmers; food system curators; fibershed stewards; money designers and more – from Bali to Brazil, as well as Delhi, London, and California.
Throughout the book I celebrate the power of small actions to transform the bigger picture – especially in the ways projects are connecting together as social and ecological systems: food commons, social farming, fibersheds, cycle commerce, and care cooperatives. These arrangements add up to a new kind of social infrastructure for the next economy: local money, mutual aid, platforms for sharing, Commoning, and Earth Law.
I conclude the book with a celebration of the ways artists in different cultures are opening our minds to different ways of looking at – and acting in – the world. Seen through this new lens, the health of living systems is the ultimate measure of wealth, and work is a natural way to thrive, not just survive.
