Nowtopia uncovers the resistance of a slowly recomposing working class in America. Rarely defining themselves by what they do for a living, people from all walks of life are doing incredible amounts of labor in their "non-work" time, creating immediate practical improvements in daily life. The social networks they create, and the practical experience of cooperating outside of economic regulation, become a breeding ground for new strategies to confront the commodification to which capitalism reduces us all.

The practices outlined in Nowtopia embody a deep challenge to the basic underpinnings of modern life, as a new ecologically driven politics emerges from below, reshaping our assumptions about science, technology, and human potential.

Chris Carlsson, executive director of the multimedia history project "Shaping San Francisco," is a writer, publisher, editor, and community organizer. He has edited four collections of political and historical essays. He helped launch the monthly bike-ins known as Critical Mass, and was the longtime editor of Processed World magazine.

Chris Carlsson is a founder and editor of the notorious underground magazine, Processed World, and the director of the historical multimedia project, Shaping San Francisco. He was recently awarded the Golden Wheel Award by the San Francisco Bike Coalition for founding Critical Mass in 1992.

Chris Carlsson is an urban historian who has written and edited Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration, Bad Attitude: Processed World Reader and Reclaiming San Francisco.