Customer Reviews
Stimulating, You must read this book. - By: laurie@gavaghan.net, 22 Dec 2000 
If you think you know whats going on you must read this book, as you are probably wrong. It will get you thinking & and open your eyes to the future. If you only read one book this year read this one.......
Thought provoking and challenging - a must read. - By: , 13 Jan 2000 Whatever you views about the hype of the new economy you will not find a more definitive treatment of the issues than this. You will guess that the author goes with the notion that a revolution is taking place. However, this is not the work of an internet hypester or a techno freak. The very strength of this book is in its breadth - the connection between the information revolution, the competitive advantage of nations, the social institutions with which we live & ultimately the sheer range of possibilities that the new economy creates.
You will get more out of this than reading 100 economics textbooks or the vast majority of business books.
A must-read for anyone with intellectual curiosity - By: , 27 Dec 1999 
Let me first declare an interest: I know the author & his work. And I like & admire him. So make alllowances for that if you have to. But I spend my professional life reading journalistic/academic theses on political, economic & social affairs, & can spot the difference between an insight & a bag of cotton wool. "Living on thin air" has charm & a good story-teller's instinct for metaphor & popular imagery. But two features stand out in particular. First, the stories take us to places where we are challlenged to upturn long-held assumptions about how bits of the world work. And second, there is an audacious sweep to this book which brings together entirely unexpected ideas, phenomena, events & insists that we see the connections between them. Anoraks who are already lined up in some corner or other of theological dispute about the knowledge society will probably not care for this book. Everyone else with any intellectual curiosity(including anyone, for instance, who bought a Brief History of Time, meaning to read it but never quite managing)should buy this book & make a new year's resolution to get to the end of it. It's not a blueprint for a revolution; it gets carried away with its optimism in parts; it doesn't tie alll the ends up neatly; but it sure as hell makes you think. In fact the world will alll seem a bit different afterwards, & what more could you ask for out of a book?
Good read for Uni students studying the 'new economy' - By: , 16 Dec 1999 This book sets out to depend & promote the central idea of a new economy based on knowldege & innovation that will take Britian into the 21st Century. It does so by analysing how to & why innovate & looks at social institutions that can promote the knowledge economy. It is a far reaching study of the situation that the economy is in & how to ensure its success in the new millenium
This is the definitive book for social entrepreneurs - By: , 13 Dec 1999 This book is the clearest description I have read to date of the changing society that we are now living in, in the UK. Having spent the last 15 years working in the second poorest ward in the country, Charles Leadbeater describes clearly the changing forces that are greatley effecting the lives of the poor in Britain. He sees clearly that these changes can be both an opportunity & a problem, & offers some useful insights as to what needs to change in both the public & voluntary sector, if the opportunities that are now presenting themselves are to be grasped.
Charles Leadbeater understands the enterprise culture & its implications for a changing society. If academics & social commentators are to see & understand these changes, they will have to dump alot of their 1970's liberal theories, climb down from their ivory towers, & get their hands dirty in some of the communities that have payed the price of their theories.
Well done Charles Leadbeater, this is a groundbreaking book which gives hope to us alll!
