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My new column for the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The Digital Wisdom of Richard Sennett

A famous sociologist of the analog world has something to say to geek culture

By SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN

If you scan through the past 10 years or so of Wired magazine in search of the major intellectuals who have affected the growth of digital culture, you would encounter many notables: Mark Granovetter, Lawrence Lessig, Pamela Samuelson, Clay Shirky, Sherry Turkle, and, of course, the patron saint of digital-media theory, Marshall McLuhan.

One name you would not encounter is Richard Sennett. Usually characterized as a public sociologist of the analog world, Sennett, who splits his time among the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and New York University, has been slighted as a theorist of things digital. ...