Freedom and Power in the Networked Information Environment
Channel: Havens Wright Center for Social Justice
Date: 24/09/2022

A lecture by Yochai Benkler examining the role of power and social relations to create an analytical framework that is accessible to a wide range of methodologies and political viewpoints, while also noting the limits and its susceptibility to capture.

This event was co-sponsored by Global Studies.

Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Since the 1990s he has played a central part in characterizing the role of information commons and decentralized collaboration to innovation, information production, and freedom in the networked economy and society. His books include The Wealth of Networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom (Yale University Press 2006), which won academic awards in the disciplines of political science, sociology, and communications policy. His work is socially engaged, winning him the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award for 2007 and Public Knowledge’s IP3 Award in 2006, and has been called a “reveille for netizens” by The Times of London and “Internet utopianism for grown-ups” by The American Prospect. At the same time, his work is highly grounded in economics and business. Wealth of Networks was cited as “perhaps the best work yet about the fast moving, enthusiast-driven Internet” by the Financial Times and was named best business book about the future in 2006 by Strategy and Business. His work can be freely accessed at benkler.org.