What if the future did not have to be either a perfect utopia or an inevitable dystopia? What if it could simply become a little better every day?
In Protopia: Leaning into the Future, Joanna Erbel presents protopia as a practical alternative to grand visions and catastrophic predictions. Meaningful change, she argues, rarely arrives through a single revolution. It grows gradually through cooperation, care, imagination, experimentation, and small initiatives that can be tested, improved, and shared.
Drawing on examples from urban planning, housing, cooperatives, local currencies, public services, environmental action, and community development, Erbel demonstrates how ideas move from the margins into the mainstream. She explores the power of prototyping, the role of cities as laboratories of innovation, and the importance of neighbourhood networks in building social and economic resilience.
The book also introduces solarpunk as a source of constructive imagination: a way of thinking about the future that acknowledges present crises without surrendering to despair. Instead of waiting for ideal conditions, we can begin with the resources, relationships, and possibilities already around us.
Combining social analysis with inspiring real-world examples, Protopia is an invitation to reclaim our ability to shape the future. It offers a hopeful yet pragmatic approach to change—one rooted not in perfection, but in persistence, cooperation, and the belief that a better world is built step by step.