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The Support Economy
Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism
by Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin

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There is no book that makes a better case for the re-emergence and reinvention of the Small Is Good World than Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin's The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism. A primary theme of this important book is that we are experiencing an historic shift in the underlying mindset/worldview of business. We are moving from the managerial capitalism of the Industrial Era (Big Is Good World) to distributed capitalism. This mindset transformation will enable the evolution of decentralized Deep Support networks servicing the needs of consumers in their increasingly hectic and complex lives in Individual Space (in the Small Is Good World).

Zuboff and Maxmin's underlying theory and historical analysis are outstanding. This is required reading by anyone wanting to better understand the emergence of the Network Society and its Network Economy. The future Zuboff and Maxmin envision, however, caters too much to exploring new market opportunities to meet the Deep Support needs of Road Warriors and Soccer Moms. But to the authors' credit, they preface their scenario examples with a strong statement that distributed capitalism will be realized in a myriad of ways by its creative participants.

Weaknesses in the limited vision of its scenario examples aside, The Support Economy is simply the best-written, most fact- and inspiration-filled book that has been written in decades. If you are interested in the vision and mission of Sohodojo, you must read this book as a foundation backdrop for our evolving strategies and tactics.

Read this in concert with Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class, Jensen's The Dream Society, and Handy's The Age of Unreason and other Sohodojo must-read recommendations.

The Support Economy Content at Sohodojo

• MicroAid - International Aid In the Small Is Good World: The Support Economy is among the recommended titles to understand the Sohodojo/MicroAid Project.
• Cross-Sector Partnerships: New Perspectives in Social Entrepreneurism: There's a Support Economy undercurrent in this presentation about the Small Is Good practice of social entrepreneurism. The subtitle,'Tuning the Two-Cylinder Engine of Capitalism' hints at how we look at the rise of distributed capitalism.

• The Author's Support Economy Companion Web Site: Brimming with additional information about Zuboff and Maxmin, and their views and interests. The Q/A section is insightful. The Review links are most helpful. The linked discussion group unfortunately is too often monopolized by off-topic bombast.
• Zuboff/Maxmin Lecture at the London School of Economics: This link will take you to a page where you can access the streaming video of this most interesting event. (Note: You'll need a Real Player to watch this.)
• Size is Not a Strategy: Keith H. Hammonds' EXCELLENT Fast Co. round-up article about organization space (applying an appropriate SE term here) and scale includes an insightful section about the Support Economy perspective on customer relationships.
• A Call to Action: Read the first installment of Shoshana Zuboff's monthly column at Fast Co. magazine. This column is an excellent thematic summary of the book.

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