Some influential social theorists and some management gurus share the view that we now live in a digital information capitalism defined by networked and 'immaterial' politics. Digital Publics traces the historical roots of this thinking, demonstrates its flaws, and shows that it leads to a rather conformist political activism in the public sphere.

John Michael Roberts is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Communications at Brunel University. He has taught the sociology of new media at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Brunel for ten years. His publications include New Media and Public Activism: Neoliberalism, the State and Radical Protest in the Public Sphere (Policy Press, 2014), The Competent Public Sphere: Global Political Economy, Dialogue, and the Contemporary Workplace (Palgrave, 2009) and The Aesthetics of Free Speech: Rethinking the Public Sphere (Palgrave, 2003). His research interests include cultural and social theory, new media activism, the public sphere, free speech, state theory and global political economy.

1. Introduction: Digital publics and cultural political economy 2. From Post-Industrial Societies to Informational Societies 3. Complex, Networked Digital Publics 4. Industrial Capitalism versus Industrial Capital 5. Financialization and Digital Publics: Beyond discourse and performativity 6. Financialization, Neoliberal State Projects and the Public Sphere 7. Creative Organisational Publics 8. Conclusion: Contradictions of cultural political economy