net critique by Geert Lovink

Networks Without a Cause -- 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.

Zero Comments -- Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (Routledge, 2007) In Zero Comments Geert Lovink upgrades worn-out concepts and inquires the latest Web 2.0 hype around blogs, wikis and social network sites. In this third volume of his studies into critical Internet culture, Lovink develops a ‘general theory of blogging.’

The Principle of Notworking -- Concepts in Critical Internet Culture (AUP, 2005), inaugural speech at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, february 2005, with three chapters on multitude, network and culture, the theory of free cooperation and the dawn of the organized networks. This booklet can be download here as a pdf (2.2 MB).

My First Recession -- Critical Internet Culture in Transition (V2-NAi, 2003, translated in Italian), contains essays on Internet theory, dotcom literature, the issue of moderation, lists, blogs and open publishing and case studies of three list communities: Syndicate (Deep Europe), Xchange (streaming media) and Oekonux (GPL society debate).

Uncanny Networks -- Dialogues with the Virtual Intelligentsia (MIT Press, 2002), a collection of interviews with new media artists, theorists and critics from East and West-Europe, USA and Asia who reflect on their concepts and practices. It provides a critical context of ideas, networks and artworks that have shaped the past decade.

Dark Fiber -- Tracking Critical Internet Culture (MIT Press, 2002, translated in German, Italian, Spanish, Romanian and Japanese) brings together texts about new media culture worldwide, with essays on The Digital City Amsterdam and nettime, data dandyism, tactical media strategies and early critiques of dotcommania.