After capitalism: science fiction and the end of the end of the world

"Capitalism will not last forever. Few things do. It may even unravel sooner than we think, as a heating planet strains the systems through which energy, food, and water are provided. What comes next? Will the transition be deliberate or chaotic? Will it lead somewhere better, somewhere worse, or both at once? They say it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. But is it true? Science fiction often imagines the end of capitalism, mostly just for fun. From blasted wastelands riven by civil war to thriving gardens blessed by democratic self-governance, from post-scarcity abundance to technological singularities gleaming beyond yawning stargates, science fiction offers glimpses of what worlds may come in the wake of the worlds we know. Moving between literary criticism and political theory, After Capitalism asks what real-world policymakers, political organizers, and alternative communities might learn from science fiction. It surveys more than half a century of postcapitalist imagination, drawing on writers such as Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K.