Yochai Benkler
Institutional political economy; technology; democracy; networks; media; cooperation.
I study the institutional political economy of capitalism, with a particular emphasis on
the dynamics that drive technological change and productivity growth, social dislocation, and democratic crisis in market societies
Books
The Global Origins of Capitalism
Power, Productivity, and the Evolution of Modern
Market Societies, Oxford University Press, May, 2027.
Publisher page; open access will be available upon publication
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The Wealth of Networks
How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale
University Press, 2006.
American Sociological Association. CITASA Award,
best book related to sociology
of communications, 2008….
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Network Propaganda
Manipulation, Disinformation and Radicalization in American
Politics, Oxford University Press, 2018.
American Political Science Association. Doris Graber Outstanding Book Award,
best book on political.. 2026
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Selected Publications
Structure and Legitimation in Capitalism: Law, Power, and Justice in Market Society
Reconstructing Class Analysis
The Ends of Law: Structure and Legitimation in Social Relations
Power and Productivity: Institutions, Ideology and Technology in Political Economy
From Utopia to Practice and Back
Shorter Writings
LPE Blog: Taking social relations as the basic unit of analysis (symposium)
LPE Blog: A social theory of law in capitalism (symposium)
Balkinization: The transhistorical dormitive principle, MHMAL, and LPE
LPE Blog: The Role of Technology in Political Economy Part III
LPE Blog: The Role of Technology in Political Economy Part II
LPE Blog: The Role of Technology in Political Economy Part I
Latest Videos & Talks
After Neoliberalism From Left to Right closing remarks
December 2026.
TED Talk: Open Source Economics
July 2005
Harvard Faculty share "Why I changed my mind?"
April 2024
Podcasts & Interviews
Disruptor Confessions with John Ayres – Why Ethics Can’t Fix AI The Brutal Political Economy of Modern Technology
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Luminary – Yochai Benkler on Tech’s true forces: capitalism, institutions, and ideological impact
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The Great Divide, Trump and the American Press (with Ted Koppel)
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Theory Interview, Society Technology People
BBIB (2019)
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News Coverage & Reviews
About Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard
Law School, where he is faculty director of the Program on Law and Political Economy and
a co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Since the 1990s, he has
written about the political economy of digital technologies, focusing on how struggles over
commodification or decommodification of access to the basic resources necessary for
information, knowledge, and cultural production are a central determinant of freedom in
twenty-first century society.
His current work focuses on the institutional political economy
of capitalism, combining historical and theoretical work to explain the dynamics that drive
waves of innovation and productivity growth, social struggle, dislocation, and crisis in
market societies
Berkman Professor
Harvard Law School
Faculty Co-Director
Berkman Klein Center
Affiliated Scholar
Harvard University