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Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society
It presents concepts and their connections to current society; visions of what can be in a preferred, participatory future; and an examination of the ends and means required for developing a just society. Neither shying away from the complexity of human issues, nor reeking of dogmatism, Practical Utopia presupposes only concern for humanity.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 21, 2017
24 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
About the author
Michael Albert
78 books64 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
American activist, speaker, and writer. He is co-editor of ZNet, and co-editor and co-founder of Z Magazine. He also co-founded South End Press and has written numerous books and articles. He developed along with Robin Hahnel the economic vision called participatory economics.
Albert identifies himself as a market abolitionist and favors democratic participatory planning as an alternative.
During the 1960s, Albert was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, and was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement.
Albert's memoir, Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism (ISBN 1583227423), was published in 2007 by Seven Stories Press.
American activist, speaker, and writer. He is co-editor of ZNet, and co-editor and co-founder of Z Magazine. He also co-founded South End Press and has written numerous books and articles. He developed along with Robin Hahnel the economic vision called participatory economics.
Albert identifies himself as a market abolitionist and favors democratic participatory planning as an alternative.
During the 1960s, Albert was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, and was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement.
Albert's memoir, Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism (ISBN 1583227423), was published in 2007 by Seven Stories Press.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 16, 2018
I found the first part of this book a little naive. Albert certainly comes from an anarchist background but tries to mention his support for anarchism as less as possible. I believe he does this because he is clearly trying to come off as objective an non-biased. Which is good in my opinion. The problem is that he certainly commits the same errors as most anarchist authors do. He believes his approach will solve every problem in the world. He seems to point out that if we follow a system of participatory decision making in economics, politics, kinship etc, every problem of oppression is solved. Which comes off as less practical and more utopian. Also, what he proposes in the first part of the book is not very different from what other authors like Bookchin propose or what social economy and cooperativism are already doing (direct democracy, mutual aid, self management etc).
But where there first part of the book fails the second part of the book shines. This is where the book certainly brings new and important material, even to traditional anarchist theories. It centers on strategy, tactics and also brings about the dilema of sectarianism, dogmatism, reformism vs revolution etc. Here is where he gives the tools that could be important for even existing cooperative and anarchist economic and political movements.
His proposals in participatory economy, politics, kinship etc are good but not very original or different from any other cooperative or anarchist methods. But the second part could very well be a basic manual of funcional and important tools for existing or future social movements.
But where there first part of the book fails the second part of the book shines. This is where the book certainly brings new and important material, even to traditional anarchist theories. It centers on strategy, tactics and also brings about the dilema of sectarianism, dogmatism, reformism vs revolution etc. Here is where he gives the tools that could be important for even existing cooperative and anarchist economic and political movements.
His proposals in participatory economy, politics, kinship etc are good but not very original or different from any other cooperative or anarchist methods. But the second part could very well be a basic manual of funcional and important tools for existing or future social movements.
June 23, 2018
Albert’in okunmayı, üzerinde tartışmayı çok hak eden bu kitabı ülkemizin seçin gündemiyle de, sonrasıyla da çok örtüşüyor.
Henüz seçim sonuçları belli olmasa da, sonuç ne olursa olsun devam edecek olan “daha iyi, daha adil, sürdürülebilir bir yaşam” mücadelesi için bu kitap okunmalı...
hem teorik, hem de pratik öneriler üzerinde konuşan Michael Albert “aramızdaki farklılıklar fazlasıyla önemli de gelebilir, ancak tartışılamaz değildir” diyor. Farklılıklar karşılıklı saygıyı ortadan kaldırmamalı, ortak bir gelecek arzusunu paylaştığımız unutulmamalıdır.
Asıl konuya odaklanmalı, ayrıntılarda boğulmamalıyız. Denemeden kazanamayız, kazanmak zorundayız.
“Minimalist Maksimalizm” yaklaşımıyla dogmatizm, vizyoner sekterlik gibi hastalıklardan kaçınarak, ılımlı, esnek, sürekli gelişim içinde bir muhalefet mümkündür...
Biz %99 uz... Gelecek bizimdir..,
Başarabiliriz, BAŞARACAĞIZ...
Henüz seçim sonuçları belli olmasa da, sonuç ne olursa olsun devam edecek olan “daha iyi, daha adil, sürdürülebilir bir yaşam” mücadelesi için bu kitap okunmalı...
hem teorik, hem de pratik öneriler üzerinde konuşan Michael Albert “aramızdaki farklılıklar fazlasıyla önemli de gelebilir, ancak tartışılamaz değildir” diyor. Farklılıklar karşılıklı saygıyı ortadan kaldırmamalı, ortak bir gelecek arzusunu paylaştığımız unutulmamalıdır.
Asıl konuya odaklanmalı, ayrıntılarda boğulmamalıyız. Denemeden kazanamayız, kazanmak zorundayız.
“Minimalist Maksimalizm” yaklaşımıyla dogmatizm, vizyoner sekterlik gibi hastalıklardan kaçınarak, ılımlı, esnek, sürekli gelişim içinde bir muhalefet mümkündür...
Biz %99 uz... Gelecek bizimdir..,
Başarabiliriz, BAŞARACAĞIZ...
November 26, 2024
Coordinator elitism is as prevalent and as vile as capitalist, racist, or sexist elitism.
Michael Albert et al have produced a work of selfless love for humanity that outlines in logical terms the foundations of a practical utopian society free of the evils of hierarchy and tyranny prescribed by the M-L left, 'free market' capitalists, and the fascist right alike.
Of course it's largely ignored. Which is a shame, as Albert goes well beyond the outline of the goal and reserves the final two-thirds of the book for strategy, including a much-needed call for humility and for practicing what we preach: any movement for solidarity, equity, diversity, and self-management must bring some or all of this into the lives of its members rather snappish or it will never survive.
Let me try to outline Albert's outline--maybe it will resonate:
A healthy, happy, free, and just society must be founded on shared human values. Those things we all wish for at some point or other, perhaps at ages before the market system wore us down. They include:
1. Solidarity: Cooperation and shared interest; a belief that no one's benefit should come at the expense of others.
2. Diversity: Appreciation for a diversity of options for living, across all spheres of society; Seeing variety as the spice of life.
3. Equity: Rewards should be commensurate to individual efforts to fulfil responsibility.
4. Self-management: Everyone's say in decisions should be proportionate to the degree they are affected by them.
5. Stewardship of nature: Society should not commit suicide by way of environmental degradation.
6. Internationalism: Mutual benefit arises by fostering diversity, solidarity, sociality for everyone. Recognising that we're all in this together.
7. Participation: Elimination of divisions along the spheres of society.
The overlapping spheres of human society (merely a device for discussing aspects of human sociality) are:
1. Kinship (interrelations)
2. Culture/community
3. Polity (decision-making)
4. Economics (production)
These 'spheres' transpire in every part of any society and exist in the context of the natural environment and other societies.
History is defined by changes in the four spheres--by social r/evolution--and in changes to the defining institutions and the roles available for people to fill in one or more of the spheres. And history demonstrates that any substantial hierarchy born of any of the spheres tends to invade the others. For example, a sexist hierarchy (Kinship) will nearly always be reproduced in the society's polity, economics, and culture as well.
As a trained and practising economist, Albert goes into a bit more detail on the institutions specifically required to foster non-hierarchical economic societal relations--a participatory economics, or 'parecon' (for the sake of economy ;-). To align with the society's values (solidarity, diversity, equity, self-management), a parecon needs the following institutions, for starters:
1. Workers' and consumers' councils: community level decision-making
2. Remuneration for effort and sacrifice--sacrifice endured to produce socially valued work; to preserve equity, there is no additional reward for power, output, and property.
3. Balanced job complexes: balancing empowering and rote tasks across roles prepares all workers to participate in collectively self-managing production, consumption, and allocation.
Pausing here, Albert makes note of why markets ultimately conflict with human values of equity, solidarity, diversity, and self-management, and that they are also anathema to our reality: we all live together on a yet-abundant but increasingly degraded planet. I don't think I need to cover this--we all know that markets have brought some convenient, even wonderful things to life, but ultimately at great inestimable cost to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness due to every being upon it. We all know the dire state of the world in Nov 2024 as the American empire, she who was founded on the market system, circles the drain, scrabbling and grasping and desperately hurling threats to the bitter end.
From 2016-17, Albert's words on this are apropos for today:
Current times make a loud argument, by example, that contemporary political structures are decrepit and redundant. Every day hammers home the realization. The U.S., for example, arguably has one of the most democratic political systems now operating. Yet, even if there weren't huge concentrations of corporate wealth and power dominating political outcomes, even if media didn't constrain and manipulate information to distort political preferences, even if the two parties weren't two wings of a single corporate party, even if there weren't diverse, idiotic, and at best anachronistic structures like the electoral college, even if elections weren't winner take all affairs in which upwards of half the voting population have their desires ignored (as do most of the other half, but that's another matter), and even if elections weren't easily hijacked by outright fraud, clearly modern electoral and parliamentary democracy would still diverge greatly from a system that maximally facilitates participation, elicits informed opinion, and justly resolves disputes.
Few serious people would dispute that the above is a fair critique.
With this pitstop, Albert returns to the hopeful and practical. After he outlines values shared by the vast majority if not all of humanity (and perhaps with all of mammal-dom), and the institutions that would support these values, he devotes a hundred pages to navigating the non-trivial obstacles to organizing for a practical good society. Avoiding prescriptive detail, Albert outlines aspects of consciousness-raising and commitment-building, contestation, and the construction of core institutions.
Before a movement can effectively contest, it should by heuristic comprise at least one-third of the affected population, who are informed, involved, and seriously committed. Here, Albert raises the importance of coordinator elitism as one of the leading obstacles to building transformational movements--on par with capitalist, sexist (What about the rapists? : anarchist approaches to crime and justice), and racist elitism. The movement itself must reflect shared values and become a medium for mutual aid--for its membership. We all need creative, rewarding work, respect, and fun.
Albert reasons that a bloc can be formed across much of the left-leaning world, taking the shared value of solidarity to heart and recognizing that we will all benefit if we act on behalf of one another, disinterestedly respecting one another's plights and possibilities out of sense of human community. As we begin to see around the edges of the Hobbesian lie, that humankind are savage / lazy beasts in need of the imposition of authority to achieve civilization, and recognize that pre-enlightenment societies all over the world (The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity) achieved and maintained utopian conditions, many alternatives appear. TINA ('there is no alternative') was always a lie, whether it was for market planning or central planning. Should we not try for a parecon, a parpolity, and equity in kinship and community?
There is a network I've found only today: https://www.realutopia.org/ It's small but real.
Michael Albert et al have produced a work of selfless love for humanity that outlines in logical terms the foundations of a practical utopian society free of the evils of hierarchy and tyranny prescribed by the M-L left, 'free market' capitalists, and the fascist right alike.
Of course it's largely ignored. Which is a shame, as Albert goes well beyond the outline of the goal and reserves the final two-thirds of the book for strategy, including a much-needed call for humility and for practicing what we preach: any movement for solidarity, equity, diversity, and self-management must bring some or all of this into the lives of its members rather snappish or it will never survive.
Let me try to outline Albert's outline--maybe it will resonate:
A healthy, happy, free, and just society must be founded on shared human values. Those things we all wish for at some point or other, perhaps at ages before the market system wore us down. They include:
1. Solidarity: Cooperation and shared interest; a belief that no one's benefit should come at the expense of others.
2. Diversity: Appreciation for a diversity of options for living, across all spheres of society; Seeing variety as the spice of life.
3. Equity: Rewards should be commensurate to individual efforts to fulfil responsibility.
4. Self-management: Everyone's say in decisions should be proportionate to the degree they are affected by them.
5. Stewardship of nature: Society should not commit suicide by way of environmental degradation.
6. Internationalism: Mutual benefit arises by fostering diversity, solidarity, sociality for everyone. Recognising that we're all in this together.
7. Participation: Elimination of divisions along the spheres of society.
The overlapping spheres of human society (merely a device for discussing aspects of human sociality) are:
1. Kinship (interrelations)
2. Culture/community
3. Polity (decision-making)
4. Economics (production)
These 'spheres' transpire in every part of any society and exist in the context of the natural environment and other societies.
History is defined by changes in the four spheres--by social r/evolution--and in changes to the defining institutions and the roles available for people to fill in one or more of the spheres. And history demonstrates that any substantial hierarchy born of any of the spheres tends to invade the others. For example, a sexist hierarchy (Kinship) will nearly always be reproduced in the society's polity, economics, and culture as well.
As a trained and practising economist, Albert goes into a bit more detail on the institutions specifically required to foster non-hierarchical economic societal relations--a participatory economics, or 'parecon' (for the sake of economy ;-). To align with the society's values (solidarity, diversity, equity, self-management), a parecon needs the following institutions, for starters:
1. Workers' and consumers' councils: community level decision-making
2. Remuneration for effort and sacrifice--sacrifice endured to produce socially valued work; to preserve equity, there is no additional reward for power, output, and property.
3. Balanced job complexes: balancing empowering and rote tasks across roles prepares all workers to participate in collectively self-managing production, consumption, and allocation.
Pausing here, Albert makes note of why markets ultimately conflict with human values of equity, solidarity, diversity, and self-management, and that they are also anathema to our reality: we all live together on a yet-abundant but increasingly degraded planet. I don't think I need to cover this--we all know that markets have brought some convenient, even wonderful things to life, but ultimately at great inestimable cost to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness due to every being upon it. We all know the dire state of the world in Nov 2024 as the American empire, she who was founded on the market system, circles the drain, scrabbling and grasping and desperately hurling threats to the bitter end.
From 2016-17, Albert's words on this are apropos for today:
Current times make a loud argument, by example, that contemporary political structures are decrepit and redundant. Every day hammers home the realization. The U.S., for example, arguably has one of the most democratic political systems now operating. Yet, even if there weren't huge concentrations of corporate wealth and power dominating political outcomes, even if media didn't constrain and manipulate information to distort political preferences, even if the two parties weren't two wings of a single corporate party, even if there weren't diverse, idiotic, and at best anachronistic structures like the electoral college, even if elections weren't winner take all affairs in which upwards of half the voting population have their desires ignored (as do most of the other half, but that's another matter), and even if elections weren't easily hijacked by outright fraud, clearly modern electoral and parliamentary democracy would still diverge greatly from a system that maximally facilitates participation, elicits informed opinion, and justly resolves disputes.
Few serious people would dispute that the above is a fair critique.
With this pitstop, Albert returns to the hopeful and practical. After he outlines values shared by the vast majority if not all of humanity (and perhaps with all of mammal-dom), and the institutions that would support these values, he devotes a hundred pages to navigating the non-trivial obstacles to organizing for a practical good society. Avoiding prescriptive detail, Albert outlines aspects of consciousness-raising and commitment-building, contestation, and the construction of core institutions.
Before a movement can effectively contest, it should by heuristic comprise at least one-third of the affected population, who are informed, involved, and seriously committed. Here, Albert raises the importance of coordinator elitism as one of the leading obstacles to building transformational movements--on par with capitalist, sexist (What about the rapists? : anarchist approaches to crime and justice), and racist elitism. The movement itself must reflect shared values and become a medium for mutual aid--for its membership. We all need creative, rewarding work, respect, and fun.
Albert reasons that a bloc can be formed across much of the left-leaning world, taking the shared value of solidarity to heart and recognizing that we will all benefit if we act on behalf of one another, disinterestedly respecting one another's plights and possibilities out of sense of human community. As we begin to see around the edges of the Hobbesian lie, that humankind are savage / lazy beasts in need of the imposition of authority to achieve civilization, and recognize that pre-enlightenment societies all over the world (The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity) achieved and maintained utopian conditions, many alternatives appear. TINA ('there is no alternative') was always a lie, whether it was for market planning or central planning. Should we not try for a parecon, a parpolity, and equity in kinship and community?
There is a network I've found only today: https://www.realutopia.org/ It's small but real.
September 5, 2017
I wish Albert were more widely read in leftist circles. The godfather of participatory economics (and by extension participatory politics), Albert has the most holistic vision of a moral economy I've encountered. In Practical Utopia, he furthers his vision by emphasizing transformation of cultural relationships as part and parcel to economic revolution. He does not split hairs as to what issues are more important than others (as is the source of much Left infighting), but instead offers clear reasoning as to why we must strive for expanding all forms of equality without prejudice. Great to read alongside Hegemony How-To by Jonathan Smucker.
February 28, 2021
Repetition and overexplaining precisely where it isn't needed, and the things I wanted to know more about, or to get a more detailed explanation of, are glossed over with "Who knows?" or "We will not go into detail on this." Maybe I misunderstood something, but I specifically picked up this book to learn more about the practical side of utopian thinking. That is the very thing the book adamantly refuses to talk about. Also, despite not being about particularly complex issues, the way this is written made it feel denser than it should have. I've rarely found it quite this difficult to concentrate on a book. I'll probably give it another go later, but at the moment, I can't recommend it.
April 18, 2024
Practical Utopia has really shaped my thinking on how I think about organizing. I especially appreciate the respect for a diversity of strategies and tactics.
August 15, 2018
NGL, this was very much a white dude 'splains a bunch of progressive philosophies that have been debated and analysed in detail in many other places. Sure, it gathers a bunch of utopian ideals in one place, but really I'd just dive into the source material instead.
October 27, 2025
yazarın "mümkün ütopya" dediği sistemin reorganizasyonu ve reformu. yazar her şeyi buna bağlı olarak tarif etmiş. mümkünlüğünü de buna bağlamış ama kapitalizm bunlara teslim olacak kadar aymaz değil. kitabı seçerken noam chomsky'nin kitaba bir önsöz yazmış olmasına aldandım, okudum. "ütopya" ile bir ilgisi yok. benim gibi yanılmayın...
October 22, 2018
İnsanı okuduktan sonra değiştiren kitaplar vardır ya. Bu kitap da o kategoriye girmeye aday bence. Bitmesini istemediğim, her sayfasında kendimi ve içinde yaşadığım toplumu gözden geçirdiğim bir kitap. Bence herkes okumalı.
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