Reviews

Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age by Steven Johnson

andreasj's review

3.0

The first third of the book contains an interesting and highly readable popularisation of recent scientific texts on the role of networks in social organisation. Unfortunately the last two thirds of the book are filled with highly enthusiastic and uncritical examples of how these network structures might change various fields of society. Mainly these case studies fall short of valid analyses since they create false dichotomies between network structures, market structures and hierarchies. Instead of telling the more differentiated tale that network structures increasingly supplement traditional forms of social organisation the cases push the more sensationalist tale that network structures will replace traditional structures. For more balanced accounts of the phenomenon see for example: Bruce Bimber, Andrew Flanagin, Cynthia Stohl (http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521139632&ss=fro), Andrew Chadwick (http://www.andrewchadwick.com/post/9129451667/the-hybrid-media-system-my-paper-for-the-ecpr-next) or Dave Karpf (http://themoveoneffect.com/about-the-book/).