The Age of Access

Visionary activist and author Jeremy Rifkin exposes the real stakes of the new economy, delivering "the clearest summation yet of how the Internet is really changing our lives" (The Seattle Times). Imagine waking up one day to find that virtually every activity you engage in outside your immediate family has become a "paid-for" experience. It's all part of a fundamental change taking place in the nature of business, contends Jeremy Rifkin. After several hundred years as the dominant organizing paradigm of civilization, the traditional market system is beginning to deconstruct. On the horizon looms the Age of Access, an era radically different from any we have known.

One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy, The Age of Access, The Biotech Century, and The End of Work. A fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program, he is president of The Foundation on Economic Trends in Bethesda, MD.

Part I: The Next Capitalist Frontier Chapter One: Entering the Age of Access Chapter Two: When Markets Give Way to Networks Chapter Three: The Weightless Economy Chapter Four: Monopolizing Ideas Chapter Five: Everything Is a Service Chapter Six: Commodifying Human Relationships Chapter Seven: Access as a Way of Life Part II: Enclosing the Cultural Commons Chapter Eight: The New Culture of Capitalism Chapter Nine: Mining the Cultural Landscape Chapter Ten: A Postmodern Stage Chapter Eleven: The Connected and the Disconnected Chapter Twelve: Toward an Ecology of Culture and Capitalism Notes Bibliography Index