A book that covers the recent state of hacktivism: “Coding Democracy”

Here are some of the more substantial reviews and commentaries on Maureen Webb’s Coding Democracy that Perplexity curated:

Professional and academic-style reviews

• Kirkus Reviews (trade review)

  • Emphasizes the book as a timely, accessible account of hackers as political actors disrupting power, surveillance, and authoritarianism.

  • Situates it in a broader public debate about security, privacy, and democracy rather than as a purely technical text.[kirkusreviews]​

• SAGE journal review in New Media & Society (or similar)

  • Treats the book as part of the “new civics of a digital era,” highlighting the case-study material (Chaos Computer Club, XNet, etc.) as the most insightful parts.

  • Notes that Webb synthesizes existing scholarship and activist accounts rather than offering a fully new theoretical framework, making it particularly useful as an introduction for students and non-specialists.[journals.sagepub]​

• The British Columbia Review (BC Review)

  • Reads the book through the lens of civil liberties and human rights, underlining Webb’s background as a lawyer.

  • Stresses the argument that code and infrastructures are becoming as constitutive of democracy as law, and appreciates the concrete examples of “hacks” against surveillance capitalism and authoritarian tendencies.[thebcreview]​

• Course-assigned academic review (Nanyang Technological University, CS8800)

  • A student-produced review for a media/technology course treats Coding Democracy as a pedagogical text that maps the hacker landscape and its democratic potentials.

  • Highlights the book’s utility for teaching about digital activism and participatory politics, while also pointing out its descriptive, sometimes journalistic tone rather than a tightly formalized theory of hacking.[studocu]​

Public-intellectual and media commentary

• WIRED “13 Must-Read Books for Spring 2020” (Emma Grey Ellis blurb)

  • Frames the book against the backdrop of “hacker triumphalism,” arguing that Webb avoids simple glorification.

  • Presents hackers as “agents of positive chaos” who worry the edges of entrenched technological systems, making the case that such disruption is necessary for revitalizing democracy.[youtube]​

• MIT Press and library descriptions (paratextual but influential)

  • MIT Press copy positions hackers as “vital disruptors” and presents the book as an “urgent upgrade of democracy” rather than pure tech-utopianism.

  • Emphasizes the global itinerary (Berlin/CCC, Silicon Valley and Apple–FBI, Barcelona’s XNet, Harvard/MIT) and the ambition to displace platforms like Facebook/Amazon and enable worker co-ops against Uber-style models.direct.mit+2

• Michael Iantorno’s review (media scholar, personal site)

  • Notes that Webb assembles hacking as an overarching philosophy tied together by diverse practices rather than fixating on definitional debates.

  • Appreciates the focus on civic action but suggests that for scholars already familiar with hacker studies, some chapters feel overlapping or skimmable, making the book more valuable as a “foray into the field” than as cutting-edge hacker ethnography.[michaeliantorno]​

Reader and community reviews

• Goodreads reviews (mixed but thoughtful)

  • Positive readers highlight:

    • The historical sweep (Chaos Computer Club, FSF, EFF, Wikileaks, crypto-parties, CCC camps) and the way it reconnects tech activism to political stakes.

    • The emphasis on hacking as ethos/practice/metaphor for new forms of distributed democracy, with concrete projects aimed at data control, platform co-ops, and rethinking governance.[goodreads]​

  • Critical readers highlight:

    • Overly detailed narrative sections that feel like “meeting minutes,” with exhaustive accounts of conversations and events.

    • A sense that the book sometimes reads “more like the author’s diary than anything academic or informative,” potentially losing an “every-person” audience in dense histories before reaching the thesis.[goodreads]​

• BookWyrm review (Edwin Wisse)

  • Praises the initial hacking history as readable, but criticizes the later chapters for drifting into long, unclear political narrative (e.g., the Italian Five Star Movement) whose relevance to “coding democracy” is not fully justified.

  • The overall verdict is that the point of the book becomes somewhat muddled by the heavy, descriptive reporting of meetings and conversations.[bookwyrm]​