The first and second chapters of this book outlined economic and social alternatives, theoretical and actual: from communism to co-ops, participatory communities, low work, slow society, eco-localism, and digital alternatives; and from communes to alternative social centres, food alternatives, free education, alternatives to prison, and welfare. They discussed how changing to alternatives can happen through many means. Of course, I have not been able to include everything. Alternatives like Christiania in Copenhagen (Smith, 2020), alternative currencies (see North, 2019 and 2020), and alternative sexualities are among areas a second edition could deal with! The rest of the book probed in more depth the issues raised by the social alternatives discussed in Chapters 1 and 2.

Many of the alternatives discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 are seen as utopias, now or in the future. The third chapter discussed Marxist and liberal criticisms of utopianism. It gave a Marxist answer to the Marxist criticisms and argued that utopianism can include liberal dimensions. The fourth chapter discussed ideas and practices of socialism, including historical attempts to implement socialism. It discussed green, feminist, and liberal criticisms of socialism. The chapter argued that the expansion of socialism can deal with many issues raised by these perspectives. In some areas, though, socialism needs to limit itself to deal with problems it has faced in the past and potential tendencies within it. This chapter argues for a liberal socialism with plurality, and multilevel means for getting to socialism and organizing it. This is a pluralist socialism, a core theme of the book.

The fifth chapter continued with alternative economies, focusing on the revival of calls for democratizing the economy, especially through decentralized and more inclusively democratic collective ownership. It addressed challenges such approaches face, in themselves and in opposition they may encounter. I argued that local social ownership should be pursued within the context of state public ownership. The sixth chapter looked at global forms alternative societies can take, arguing that regulatory and progressive global government is unlikely given different interests and ideologies in the world.