Nowtopia - Interviews and Reviews - Chris CarlssonChris Carlsson

Chris Carlsson has written a lively book. In Nowtopia, Carlsson, a San Francisco cultural innovator and creative force behind the Critical Mass bike-ins that are now fixtures in over 300 cities worldwide, takes us on a tour of happenings at the edges of society that are redefining ways of thinking, working, and living. Along the way, Carlsson deftly dissects and critiques what I would call our “Youtopian” society, in which individuals, largely isolated from one another, work for the privilege to consume. Though Carlsson’s multifaceted cultural analysis is often riveting, the true power of Nowtopia is its practicality. the ideas in this book are actionable. Given that we’re undoubtedly at a turning point in history, Nowtopia just might serve as an essential guide book for how to move forward. —Sam Edmondson,

June 10, Philly IMC: James Generic

June 4, Feminist Review

June 4, Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (mp3)

May 23, A Reading Odyssey

May 7, Columbia University Teachers College Symposium podcast

May 4, BillBlogx

April 28, GIY Guide

April 23, 2008 Against The Grain interview (1 hour) podcast

article on Nowtopia and future San Francisco in SF Bay Guardian
+ online Q&A with Erick Lyle

Release Party Reading (scroll down to April 9, 2008)

“This book explains clearly and colorfully just how ordinary revolution is, how millions of people live, not only within capitalism, but are creating through their activity the bases of what could be a different world. Amidst destruction and war, it is important to see our own strength and creativity. This is an exciting and lovely book.”

—John Holloway, author of Change the World Without Taking Power

“The revolution is underway, quietly and noisily, in a million ways, and Chris Carlsson—writer, instigator, bicyclist, boulevardier, urbanist, insurrectionist—has added to it in dozens of ways. This book is one of his finest, which is a lot to say of the main founder of the Critical Mass bicycle rides that spread from San Francisco around the world. It’s cheerful, hopeful, subversive, full of fun facts to know and share and very useful in carrying out your own revolution of everyday life and recognizing it all around you already: a standing—or walking, or pedaling or dancing—invitation to join in full enjoyment of our freedoms and potentials.”

—Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark, River of Shadows, and
A Field Guide to Getting Lost

“Chris Carlsson is one of our most original and compelling voices for radical social change in America. Nowtopia opens a window onto today’s vibrant subcultures of technical experimentation and cooperative work, in everything from biofuels to bicycling, gardening to the webworld. More than tinkerers and bohemians, these renegade innovators are pioneers of new ways of living beyond the market and ordinary jobs. Carlsson moves effortlessly from tales of personal liberation to a trenchant analysis of the reconfiguration of class. Nowtopia is a ringing appeal for the liberation of human creativity from the noose of wage-work—before it’s too late.”

—Richard Walker, Professor of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, author of The Capitalist Imperative, The Conquest of Bread, and The Country in the City

“How can today’s manifold projects for a new commons help realize the old dream of a world without bosses? Chris Carlsson’s thought-provoking book is a must-read for everyone grappling with that question.”

Chris Carlsson