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

Yochai Benkler

Yale University Press, 2006 - Business & Economics - 515 pages

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. 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 comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing—and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained—or lost—by the decisions we make today.

What people are saying

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

User Review  - Shawn - Goodreads

There are some great ideas buried deep within rather wordy prose. Benkler is more engaging is person (ie watch the various presentations of the ideas in this book available through you tube). He seems ...

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

User Review  - Nick Doty - Goodreads

I suspect it would be quicker and more satisfying just to read the Coase's Penguin paper and skip this more extended version. Still, the exploration of economic analysis of non-market motivations for ...

About the author

Yochai Benkler is the Joseph M. Field '55 Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Yale University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
• Author: Yochai Benkler
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0300125771, 9780300125771
• Length: 515 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Information Management; Computers / Information Technology; Computers / Networking / General; Computers / Social Aspects / General