The Age of Access

P. Tarcher/Putnam

2000

312 p.

Bibliogr.: p. 291–303

9781585420186

Contents: pt. 1 : The next capitalist frontier, ch. 1 : Entering the age of access, ch. 2 : When markets give way to networks, ch. 3 : The weightless economy, ch. 4 : Monopolizing ideas, ch. 5 : Everything is a service, ch. 6 : Commodifying human relationships, ch. 7 : Access as a way of life ; pt. 2 : Enclosing the cultural commons, ch. 8 : The new culture of capitalism, ch. 9 : Mining the cultural landscape, ch. 10 : A postmodern stage, ch. 11 : The connected and the disconnected, ch. 12 : Toward an ecology of culture and capitalism

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 author Jeremy Rifkin. On the horizon looms the Age of Access, an era radically different from any we have known. Rifkin argues that the capitalist journey, which began with the commodification of goods and the ownership of property, is ending with the commodification of human time and experience. In the future, we will purchase enlightenment and play, grooming and grace, and everything in between. In the Age of Access, Rifkin asks, will any time be left for relationships of a noncommercial nature? Rifkin warns that when the culture itself is absorbed into the economy, only commercial bonds will be left to hold society together. The critical question posed by The Age of Access is whether civilization can survive when only the commercial sphere remains as the primary arbiter of human life.

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