Although the study of civil society has largely confined itself to the study of organizations, there is growing interest in understanding the broader contexts and enabling conditions for a healthy and effective civil society. At the same time, the spread of low cost communication systems in the last two decades has helped spur interest in applying the science of networks to social groups and social phenomena. We are pleased to announce the inaugural issue of the Journal of Networks and Civil Society. This is the second thematic issue in our journal series and is intended to complement the previous issue which focused on information technology.

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

Edition en ligne de la revue imprimée et de ses compléments virtuels éventuels.

"People just don't realise that all these things go through undersea cables - that this is the main way these economies are all linked," said Alan Mauldin, the research director of TeleGeography. "Even when you're using wireless internet, it's only really wireless back to your base station: the rest is done over real, physical connections."

BiOS is a response to inequities in food security, nutrition, health and natural resource management. Our goal is to democratise problem solving to enable diverse solutions through decentralised innovation.

With public perception of high street banks at an all time low, Giles Andrews, CFO of ZOPA, tells our reporter about his company's revolutionary approach that's fit for the iPod generation

Imaginary Futures demonstrates how politics influenced the way the powerful tool called the internet is controlled today and calls upon all who are cyber-connected to use the Internet for taking revolutionary politics into their own hands, to create a more positive future.

In this short book, Richard Barbrook presents a collection of quotations from authors who in different ways attempt to identify an innovative element within society: ‘the class of the new’. Announcing a new economic and social paradigm, this class constitutes a ‘social prophecy’ of the shape of work to come. From Adam Smith's ‘Philosophers’ of the late 18th century, down to the ‘Creative Class’ celebrated by sociologist Richard Florida today, the class of the new represents the future of production within and beyond capitalism.