[Air-L] New book: The New Knowledge: Information, Data & the Remaking of Global Power

[NTusikov]

Hello all,

The AoIR community may be interested in a new book that I, Natasha Tusikov,
co-authored with Blayne Haggart entitled, *The New Knowledge: Information,
Data, and the Remaking of Global Power *(Rowman & Littlefield). It's open
access, available under 'features' at
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538160879/The-New-Knowledge-Information-Data-and-the-Remaking-of-Global-Power

>From the global geopolitical arena to the smart city, control over
knowledge—particularly over data and intellectual property—has become a key
battleground for the exercise of economic and political power. For
companies and governments alike, control over knowledge—what scholar Susan
Strange calls the knowledge structure—has become a goal unto itself.

The rising dominance of the knowledge structure is leading to a massive
redistribution of power, including from individuals to companies and
states. Strong intellectual property rights have concentrated economic
benefits in a smaller number of hands, while the “internet of things” is
reshaping basic notions of property, ownership, and control. In the
scramble to create and control data and intellectual property, governments
and companies alike are engaging in ever-more surveillance.

The New Knowledge is a guide to and analysis of these changes, and of the
emerging phenomenon of the knowledge-driven society. It highlights how the
pursuit of the control over knowledge has become its own ideology, with its
own set of experts drawn from those with the ability to collect and
manipulate digital data. Haggart and Tusikov propose a workable path
forward—knowledge decommodification—to ensure that our new knowledge is not
treated simply as a commodity to be bought and sold, but as a way to meet
the needs of the individuals and communities that create this knowledge in
the first place.