[Van-Parecon] Nov 23 BOOK LAUNCH for Chris Spannos: Real Utopia

[vancouverparecon at resist.ca]

BOOK LAUNCH:
Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century,
edited by Chris Spannos.
Rhizome Cafe. Sunday, November 23, 5:30 pm

Come celebrate the launch of Chris Spannos' book, Real Utopia:
Participatory Society for the 21st Century (AK Press). Chris, a founding
member of the Vancouver Participatory Economics Collective and former
Vancouverite, is remembered by many people in the community for his
contributions to Stopwar.ca, Pacific Cinematheque, Co-op Radio's Redeye
program, and more.

We'll have music and dancing, there's food and drinks, and of course we'll
hear from Chris as well as other contributors to the book.  Find out what
exactly a participatory economy and society is, hear proposals on how we
can get from here to there, and find out what projects and experiments are
already in the works.
We hope to see you there!

Event details:

A celebration of "Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century"
Sunday November 23rd, starting at 5:30pm.

Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway, Vancouver


Sponsored by:  The Vancouver Participatory Economics Collective


***

About the book:

Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century, AK Press, 2008.
Edited by Chris Spannos, with more than 30 other contributors from around
the world, including Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich
Robin Hahnel, Steve Shalom, and Justin Podur, among others.


The book chronicles developments with the participatory economics movement
throughout the world.  The book asks what if we had direct control over
our daily lives? What if society's defining institutions—those
encompassing economics, politics, kinship, culture, community, and
ecology—were based not on competition, individual ownership, and coercion,
but on self-management, equity, solidarity, and diversity? Real Utopia
identifies and obliterates the barriers to an egalitarian, bottom-up
society, while convincingly outlining how to build it.

Instead of simply declaring "another world is possible," the writers in
this collection engage with what that world would look like, how it would
function, and how our commitments to just outcomes is related to the sort
of institutions we maintain.

In Vancouver, you can purchase a copy of Real Utopia at People's Co-op
Bookstore or order the book online from AK Press:
http://www.akpress.org/2008/items/realutopiaakpress