For the Good of All: PW Talks with Kristen Ghodsee

An interview with Kristen Ghodsee, past Member in the School of Social Science (2006–07), on her new book Everyday Utopia:

"[Publishers Weekly:] Why is utopian thinking so crucial in this moment?

[Ghodsee:] I think the experience of the pandemic lockdowns and the sudden upheaval of our everyday lives also created an opportunity to realize how much of the routines of our daily lives were merely matters of social convention, rather than the way that things have to be. Companies that used to totally refuse the idea of remote work suddenly allowed all their employees to work from home. People raising their children in the nuclear family, in single-family homes, suddenly formed pandemic pods with family, friends, neighbors—anybody they could get to share childcare and homeschooling responsibilities. So right now, we’re in this incredibly plastic moment in time, and we need to seize the opportunity to do more social dreaming before our societies revert to their own sclerotic ways."