Who says that all possible social and political systems have already been invented? Or that work—or marriage, or environmentalism, or anything else—must be just what they are now?

This book is a conceptual toolbox for imagining and initiating radical social change. Chapters offer specific, focused, and shareable techniques:

• Seeking a Whole Vision: Creating a pull and not just a push toward change
• Generative Thinking: Looking for “Seeds” and “Sparks”, Stretching and Twisting Ideas, and Going Two Steps Too Far
• Looking for Unexpected Openings: “Weeds” and “Wild Cards,” Inside Tracks, Leverage Points, and Hidden Possibilities
• Working at the Roots: Reconstructing the built world, cultural practices, even worldviews
• Building Momentum: Playing to our Strengths, Reclaiming the Language, “Allying Everywhere,” Doing it Now, Going for Broke

Leap-frogging new kinds of cars and better mass transit in turn, why not a world in which “transportation” itself is unneeded? What about remaking New Orleans as a floating city, or putting only extreme surfers in the path of hurricanes? And why not dream of the stars? The question is not whether radical change is coming. It is already well underway. The only question is who will make it. Why not us?

Anthony Weston is a professor of philosophy at Elon University in North Carolina, where he teaches ethics, environmental studies, and “Millennial Imagination.” He is the author of ten other books, including Back to Earth, Jobs for Philosophers, and Creativity for Critical Thinkers.