Connexity: How to Live in a Connected World - Softcover

CONNEXITY is the philosophical counterpart to Will Hutton's essentially political book. It looks at the profound tension that exists between two recent achievements of humanity: greater freedom (over how to live, who to love, what to believe and say, where to trade), and greater interdependence, or 'connexity' (through the financial markets, military structures, the internet, the ecosystem). This tension has led to crisis: institutions, including governments, sense themselves to be inadequate; individuals are faced with a mass of conflicting information and values. The issue we face, which will ultimately determine human survival in our densely packed planet, is how the tension between these two can be resolved, and a new order established. Mulgan presents his own powerful solution to this crisis. It is based around the notion of 'connexity': breaking down our rigid sense of ourselves as isolated units and seeing our lives as part of a system, a positive network of co-responsibility.

Geoff Mulgan is the founder and director of Demos, an independent think-tank set up in 1993 in London. He is a visiting professor at University College London, and has published books on broadcasting, telecommunications and culture. He has been a reporter for both BBC TV and Radio, and contribues regularly to the Guardian and the Independent.