Praised by The New York Times as one of the most distinctive voices in magazine journalism, the Utne Reader's mission has been to uncover the important and inspiring news that the major media overlooks. Now, with that same dedication, the editors of Utne have profiled more than sixty of the world's most original thinkers who are often right at the centre of that news, focusing on their ideas, their inspiration, and their visions of the future. These are not the 'visionaries' usually lauded in the major media, who tell us how the world of tomorrow will be shaped overwhelmingly by globalisation, new technology, and market economics. Coming from monasteries and urban ghettos, working at architecture firms and restaurants, living in Berkeley and Bangladesh, being under 35 and over 80, the visionaries in this book share one crucial asset: hope for the future. Hope for finding broader meaning and greater joy in our lives. Hope for the restoration of the planet. Hope for a social and economic order that uses the welfare of the weakest, not the strongest, as its gauge of success. Well-illustrated with photographs of the subjects who are grouped into six categories - spirit, design, environment, social action, health, and culture - Visionaries is an inspiring and invaluable resource that will have profound appeal for activists, concerned citizens and all those 'cultural creatives' who make up Utne's 600,000 loyal readers.