With the vast majority of Facebook users caught in a frenzy of 'friending', 'liking' and 'commenting', at what point do we pause to grasp the consequences of our info-saturated lives? What compels us to engage so diligently with social networking systems? Networks Without a Cause examines our collective obsession with identity and self-management coupled with the fragmentation and information overload endemic to contemporary online culture. With a dearth of theory on the social and cultural ramifications of hugely popular online services, Lovink provides a path-breaking critical analysis of our over-hyped, networked world with case studies on search engines, online video, blogging, digital radio, media activism and the Wikileaks saga. This book offers a powerful message to media practitioners and theorists: let us collectively unleash our critical capacities to influence technology design and workspaces, otherwise we will disappear into the cloud. Probing but never pessimistic, Lovink draws from his long history in media research to offer a critique of the political structures and conceptual powers embedded in the technologies that shape our daily lives.

"Social Breakthrough, from Dr. Paul Light of New York University, illustrates how to create the social breakthroughs needed to solve urgent global threats such as poverty, disease, and hunger. The book then turns to three alternative but complimentary paths to social breakthrough, (1) social protecting, (2) social exploring, and (3) social advocacy, and provides a detailed map of the journey from initial commitment to a world of justice and opportunity. The book includes: An examination of the current condition of the social impact infrastructure. Strategies for how to remedy the steady weakening of our social-impact infrastructure. Tactics to build strong social organizations and networks. Dynamic methods to respond to constant economic and social change."--