Aoife Barry’s Social Capital investigates the impact of the tech boom on Ireland
HarperCollins Ireland has acquired Aoife Barry’s Social Capital, the coming-of-age story of Ireland 3.0 set against the backdrop of the tech boom.
Catherine Gough, Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins Ireland bought world all language rights from Aoife Barry.
Social Capital explores the societal and cultural consequences of Ireland’s unique position as a haven for many of the world’s largest tech multinationals.
Barry explores what it is to be a person online right now, taking in some of the major internet moments in Ireland to illustrate what we’ve experienced and what we have – or haven’t – learned from it.
Barry worked for an online news outlet, only to find herself questioning the impact of social media on her life. A journalist, broadcaster and writer living in Dublin, Barry says that since her first teenage forays online she has been fascinated by how people behave on the internet.
“It was exciting to get the opportunity thanks to HarperCollins Ireland to speak to other people about their lives and experiences online, and to delve deeper into the most pertinent and controversial internet behaviour affecting people in Ireland – from bullying to transphobia, harassment to influencing. Social Capital takes stock of where we are online right now, as well as the impact the tech boom has had on Dublin city, so that together we can figure out where to go in the future. I hope readers find the journey as illuminating as I found writing the book.”
Publisher Conor Nagle says that technological developments over the last two decades have revolutionised how we engage with the world around us.
“And here in Ireland, our experience of these changes has been unique; Ireland is, after all, home to both a community of particularly eager social media users, as well as the European base for many of the world’s leading tech companies. They have remapped our psychology, rebuilt vast swathes of our capital city, and helped form new communities while hastening the decline of others.
“Social Capital is a wide-ranging and profound work of reportage that seeks to reckon with this revolution, taking stock of our gains and losses along the way, all the while sketching the uncertainty of our future. It couldn’t be more urgent or necessary, nor could we be prouder to be publishing it.”
Social Capital will be published on April 27th, 2023.
