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Theory, Culture & Society
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The Poverty of Networks

The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 515, ISBN 0 300 12577 1, pbk £11.99 Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software by Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 232, ISBN 0 415 97893 4, hbk £60.00 The Exploit: A Theory of Networks by Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2007, pp. 256, ISBN 0 816 65044 6, pbk £12.00

David M. Berry

Swansea University

The use of networks as an explanatory framework is widespread in the literature that surrounds technology and information society. The three books reviewed here — The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler, Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software by Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter, and The Exploit: A Theory of Networks by Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker — all make a claim to the novelty that networks provide to their subject matter. By looking closely at the way in which the network is utilized in each of the texts, this review attempts to question the extent to which a network analysis can ground a claim about a discontinuity in technology, society or economics.

Key Words: commons • Deleuze • information society • networks • open source • rhizomatics • theory

Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 25, No. 7-8, 364-372 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276408097813
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