The term ‘Nowtopia’ is increasingly used by both activists and academics to describe a variety of interconnected tendencies. It can, for instance, apply to seeking freedom outside the confines of wage labour, or the creation of liberated common space in the here and now.
This documentary about economic alternatives was made in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second largest city. It examines community responses to the Covid-19 crisis and the multiplicity of nowtopian alternatives which exist in three community-based projects: a maker space, a community bike workshop, and an urban garden.
The film interviews Chris Carlsson, author of ‘Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today!’ and Nadia Johanisova, expert in heterodox economics and eco-social enterprise. It draws inspiration from the post-capitalist community economies approach of J.K. Gibson-Graham and the economic utopianism of the Degrowth movement.