Connexity looks at the profound tension that exists between two recent achievements of humanity: greater freedom (over how to live, who to love, what to believe and say, where to trade), and greater interdependence, or 'connexity' (through the financial markets, military structures, the internet, the ecosystem). This tension has led to crisis: institutions, including governments, sense themselves to be inadequate; individuals are faced with a mass of conflicting information and values.  The issue we face, which will ultimately determine human survival in our densely packed planet, is how the tension between these two can be resolved, and a new order established. Mulgan presents his own powerful solution to this crisis. It is based around the notion of 'connexity': breaking down our rigid sense of ourselves as isolated units and seeing our lives as part of a system, a positive network of co-responsibility.

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‘A brilliant book….’

Robert Cooper, Prospect

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 "Boldly attempts to rethink the nature of political, economic, and moral structures.... Mulgan's argument is that societies are passing from dependence on tradition and hierarchy through the independence of liberal individualism to interdependence.... If you feel we spend too little time asking what capitalism is really for...connect with this book."  Financial Times

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‘The fundamental theme of Geoff Mulgan’s endlessly fascinating book is the conflict
between the facts of connexity, of connectedness, a product of the revolution in
communications and technology, and the ideology of freedom…. Connexity is a
supremely adult book and it will be read long after much of today’s fashionable
literature on politics has been forgotten.’   Vernon Bogdanor, International Affairs

 

‘Mulgan is a brilliant synthesiser.. he has pulled together a remarkable amount of
material on the eternal tension between freedom and order leading to new and
optimistic conclusions…[an] energetic and impressive book.’

Jonathan Steele, Guardian

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‘a rewarding meditation… his study of shifting social attachments
offers rare stimulation’ Daily Telegraph

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‘draws on a dazzling range of discipline in the social
and natural sciences…it’s a huge, reverberating volume..that provides powerful
cognitive maps for the future’

Pat Kane, Glasgow Herald

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‘Skilfuly probes the major
problem of our era: the tension between ever-expanding connectivity and ever-
growing demands for individual autonomy. His keen analysis, wide knowledge base,
intuition for future trends and steady moral compass reveal why this youthful policy
makers has already become a legend’

Professor Howard Gardner, Harvard 

 

‘Mulgan is an unusually perceptive and prescient rising star. Cutting across traditional
categories and disciplines his insights and powerful suggestions are already heeded by
CEOs, heads of state and many others. To read Mulgan is to read the future.’
Professor Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University