Newman, a union lawyer, political activist, and frequent contributor to Technology Review, Progressive Populist, and American Prospect, offers a thinly disguised rewrite of his groundbreaking 1998 doctoral dissertation. On the surface, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the federal government's long-obscured role in the development of the Internet and the changing role of regions in the U.S. economy. At its heart, it is a call for individuals, groups, and communities to organize and counter the various political, social, and economic costs that have resulted, including globalization, contingent employment, economic polarization, expanded regulation, inequality, joblessness, outsourcing, opportunism, privatization, wage stagnation, and the disempowerment of communities and local government. Along the way, Newman provides a well-written history of the Internet plus an analysis of key events, including the federal government's decision to withdraw from controlling the net, the passage of Proposition 13 in California, the breakup of AT&T, the 1999 battle in Seattle during the World Trade Organization conference, and the 2001 energy crisis in California. Recommended for both academic libraries and larger public libraries. Norm Hutcherson, California State Univ. Lib., Bakersfield
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
How has the internet been changing our lives and how did these changes come about? Nathan Newman seeks the answers to these questions by studying the emergence of the internet economy in Silicon Valley and the transformation of power relations it has brought about in the new information age. "Net Loss" is his effort to understand why technological innovation and growth have been accompanied by increasing economic inequality and a sense of political powerlessness among large sectors of the population. Newman first tells the story of the US federal government's crucial role in the early development of the internet, with the promotion of open computer standards and collaborative business practices that became the driving force of the Silicon Valley model. He then examines the complex dynamic of the process whereby regional economies have been changing as business alliances built around industries like the internet replace the broader public investments that fuelled regional growth in the past. A radical restructuring of once regionally cofused industries like banking, electric utilities and telephone companies is under way, with changes in federal regulation helping to undermine regional planning and the power of local community actors. The rise of global internet commerce itself contributes to weakening the tax base of local governments, even as these governments increasingly use networked technology to market themselves and their citizens to global business, usually at the expense of all but their most elite residents. More optimistically, Newman sees an emerging countertrend of global use of the internet by grassroots organizations, such as those in the anti-globalization movements, that may help to transcend this local powerlessness.
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