Glimpses of Utopia

What is Glimpses of Utopia: Real Ideas for a Fairer World by Jess Scully about?

• Explores systemic change: The book investigates transformative ideas and real-world projects that aim to create fairer, more sustainable, and inclusive societies.
• Focus on practical solutions: Jess Scully highlights global examples of how work, care, finance, government, and urban planning can be reimagined to better serve people.
• Hope amid crises: It offers a manifesto for hope, showing how creativity and compassion can address climate change, inequality, and political polarization.
• Interconnected themes: The book demonstrates how reforms in one area, like finance or care, support progress in others, emphasizing the need for holistic change.

Why should I read Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully?

• Inspiration in challenging times: The book provides optimism and actionable solutions for readers feeling overwhelmed by global crises.
• Comprehensive systemic insight: It offers a deep understanding of the root causes of inequality, environmental degradation, and social fragmentation.
• Bridges theory and practice: Scully combines research, interviews, and her political experience to present a grounded yet visionary roadmap for change.
• Empowerment and agency: Readers are encouraged to see themselves as agents of change, with practical steps to participate in building a fairer world.

What are the key takeaways from Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully?

• Reimagine work and care: The book urges society to recognize and reward human creativity and caregiving as essential economic activities.
• Reform finance and taxation: Scully advocates for ensuring public investments and corporate profits return value to society, and for shifting taxes from labor to pollution and resource use.
• Restore the commons: Data and other shared resources should be managed collectively for public benefit, not private gain.
• Rebuild cities and civic trust: Inclusive urban design and respectful civic dialogue are essential for equity and collective action.

What does Jess Scully mean by "glimpses of utopia" in Glimpses of Utopia?

• Concrete, real-world experiments: "Glimpses of utopia" are not abstract ideals but actual projects and ideas with the potential to transform society.
• Seed forms of the future: These initiatives are imperfect and incomplete but show what a fairer, sustainable future could look like if nurtured and scaled.
• Global examples: The book features participatory budgeting in Brazil, digital democracy in Taiwan, and worker co-ops in Argentina as such glimpses.
• Hopeful pragmatism: Scully balances optimism with realism, encouraging readers to recognize and support these emerging changes.

How does Jess Scully in Glimpses of Utopia propose redesigning work for a fairer economy?

• Expanding worker ownership: The book highlights models like employee stock ownership and co-operatives that align workers’ and owners’ interests and improve job security.
• Democratic business models: Examples like The Co-Operative Life in Australia show how care work can be organized to benefit both workers and clients.
• Addressing gig economy challenges: Scully discusses the rise of precarious work and the need for new forms of unionization and worker representation.
• Countering financialization: The book critiques the separation of work from jobs and the dominance of finance over the real economy.

What is the "care economy" and why is it important in Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully?

• Definition and scope: The care economy includes child care, elder care, disability support, education, and environmental stewardship—work essential for societal wellbeing.
• Undervaluation and gender bias: Care work is often unpaid or underpaid, predominantly done by women, and wrongly considered "low skill."
• Investment benefits: Research shows investing in care creates more jobs and reduces gender employment gaps more effectively than traditional infrastructure spending.
• Transformative potential: Scully advocates for formalizing care work, improving conditions, and recognizing care as foundational to a fair, sustainable economy.

How does Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully address the role of citizens in democracy?

• Recentering the citizen: The book argues for shifting power back to citizens through participatory budgeting, deliberative democracy, and digital platforms.
• Innovative examples: Iceland’s Better Reykjavik and Taiwan’s vTaiwan platforms enable ongoing citizen engagement and policy co-creation.
• Expanding representation: Scully emphasizes the importance of including young people, women, and marginalized communities in political processes.
• Deliberative democracy: Citizens’ juries and councils are discussed as ways to deepen participation and rebuild trust in institutions.

What political innovations are highlighted in Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully?

• Participatory budgeting: Originating in Brazil, this process gives citizens direct control over parts of public budgets, improving spending on health, education, and housing.
• Digital democracy platforms: Tools like Better Reykjavik and vTaiwan allow for crowdsourced policy ideas and transparent government responses.
• Forking government: Inspired by software, Taiwan experiments with parallel policy approaches that can be merged if successful, fostering innovation.
• Citizens’ juries and councils: Randomly selected citizens deliberate on complex issues, providing informed recommendations and reducing polarization.

How does Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully propose reforming finance and recouping public investment?

• Socializing risks, privatizing rewards: Scully critiques how public funds often enable private profits without fair returns to society.
• Democratic ownership of capital: Models like The Working World provide patient, non-extractive capital to worker-owned enterprises.
• Tax reform proposals: Ideas such as the "Maid Marion Tax" (a financial transactions tax) could fund social infrastructure and reduce inequality.
• Community wealth building: The book promotes local ownership and control of assets to keep wealth circulating within communities.

What does Jess Scully say about public investment in technology in Glimpses of Utopia?

• Public origins of innovation: Many technologies, like the internet and GPS, were developed with public funding, especially through defense and university research.
• Lack of fair returns: Despite public investment, tech giants often avoid taxes and create few jobs, privatizing rewards while socializing risks.
• Proposed solutions: Scully highlights Mariana Mazzucato’s idea that governments should charge royalties on publicly funded innovations to ensure public benefit.
• Reinvestment in research: Ensuring returns from public investment can fund future innovation and social infrastructure.

How does Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully address corporate tax avoidance and profit shifting?

• Exposure of tax havens: The book discusses how corporations and wealthy individuals use tax havens to avoid paying taxes where profits are earned.
• Profit shifting tactics: Companies use subsidiaries and intra-group transactions to minimize tax liabilities.
• Global reform proposals: Scully presents unitary taxation and country-by-country reporting as ways to allocate profits fairly and close loopholes.
• Call for cooperation: The book urges global collaboration to ensure corporations contribute their fair share to society.

What are the Ex’Tax Project and its significance in Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully?

• Tax shift concept: The Ex’Tax Project proposes shifting taxation from labor to natural resource use and pollution, incentivizing employment and environmental protection.
• Economic and social benefits: Modeling shows this shift could increase jobs, GDP, and reduce emissions and resource use.
• Global applicability: The project is being adapted for developing countries, offering a way to fund Sustainable Development Goals.
• Supports a caring economy: The tax shift aligns with Scully’s vision of an economy that values people and the planet.

How does Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully envision rebuilding civic conversation and public trust?

• Breaking echo chambers: Initiatives like Germany Talks pair people with opposing views for one-on-one conversations, reducing polarization.
• Designing social space: The book emphasizes understanding and expanding people’s willingness to balance self-interest with community good.
• New civic institutions: Scully calls for new spaces and institutions that enable inclusive, empathetic dialogue and participatory democracy.
• Restarting civic conversation: Fostering respectful dialogue is seen as essential for rebuilding trust and collective action for systemic change.