The Wealth of Networks : How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom

“The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom” by Yochai Benkler, Yale University Press. With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book.

Book Description

The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today’s emerging networked information environment.

In this free book, Yale law professor Benkler offers a comprehensive catalog of flashpoints in the conflict between old and new information creators. In Benkler’s view, the new “networked information economy” allows individuals and groups to be more productive than profit-seeking ventures.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge
• Some Basic Economics of Information Production and Innovation
• Peer Production and Sharing
• The Economics of Social Production
• Individual Freedom: Autonomy, Information, and Law
• Political Freedom Part 1: The Trouble with Mass Media
• Political Freedom Part 2: Emergence of the Networked Public Sphere
• Cultural Freedom: A Culture Both Plastic and Critical
• Justice and Development
• Social Ties: Networking Together
• The Battle Over the Institutional Ecology of the Digital Environment
• Conclusion: The Stakes of Information Law and Policy

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