Share or die - Malcolm Harris

America stands at a precipice; limitless consumption, reckless economics, and disregard for the environment have put the country on a collision course with disaster. It's up to a younger generation to rebuild according to new forms of organization, and Share or Die is a collection of messages from the front lines.

From urban Detroit to central Amsterdam, and from worker co-operatives to nomadic communities, an astonishing variety of recent graduates and twenty-something experimenters are finding (and sharing) their own answers to negotiating the new economic order. Their visions of a shared future include:

• Collaborative consumption networks instead of private ownership
  
• Replacing the corporate ladder with a "lattice lifestyle"
  
• Do-it-yourself higher education

As a call-to-action, "share or die" doesn't only refer to resource depletion, disappearing jobs, or stagnating wages. It refers to social death too, and to finding the common sense ideas and practices needed to not only merely survive, but to build a place where it's worth living. A series of forays into uncharted territory, this graphically rich collection of essays, narratives, and how-tos is an intimate guide to the new economic order and a must-read for anyone attempting to understand what it means to live as part of Generation Y.

Malcolm Harris is the Life/Art channel editor and a writer at Shareable and managing editor at The New Inquiry, a criticism site devoted to collecting and promoting the work of young, unaffiliated writers.

Neal Gorenflo is the co-founder and publisher of Shareable, a nonprofit online magazine about sharing.