For its 21st year, UCSB Reads selects a timely and provocative exploration of modern tech economics, corporate accountability, and the public interest.
The UC Santa Barbara Library and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost are pleased to announce the selection of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow for UCSB Reads 2027, the 21st edition of UCSB’s award-winning common book program.
Winner of the 2026 Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction, Enshittification offers a “razor-sharp yet subtly optimistic look at the soul-sucking state of the internet” (Publishers Weekly). Doctorow originally coined the term in 2022, after which it was named Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. The book details a three-stage lifecycle of modern digital platforms – from social media networks to search engines, e-commerce giants, and app stores. According to Doctorow, these platforms first lure users with convenient and delightful services; second, they exploit those users for business customers; and third, they squeeze those customers to maximize shareholder value, leaving behind a degraded, barely functional service that traps consumers and workers alike. Rather than treating this decline as inevitable, Doctorow presents an actionable roadmap of legal, regulatory, and technological solutions to reclaim our digital public spaces.
Cory Doctorow is a renowned Canadian-British science fiction author, journalist, and technology activist. He has authored dozens of books, including Little Brother and The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI, serves as a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and holds academic appointments at Cornell University, MIT, Open University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2022, Doctorow received the Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Award for lifetime achievement.
UCSB Reads fosters a shared sense of belonging by bringing the campus and Santa Barbara communities together to read a common book that explores compelling issues of our time. Each year, an advisory committee of UCSB faculty, staff, students, and community partners helps the Library select an intellectually stimulating, interdisciplinary book by a living author that appeals to a wide range of readers and can be incorporated into the UCSB curriculum.
UCSB Reads 2027 will launch in January with a free book giveaway for UCSB students and culminate with a free public talk by Cory Doctorow at UCSB Campbell Hall on April 29, 2027, presented in partnership with UCSB Arts & Lectures. Throughout the winter and spring quarters, the Library will sponsor a variety of free learning, experiential, and social events to explore the book's themes.
Instructors are encouraged to incorporate Enshittification into their winter and spring courses; the Library will provide free copies for instructors and enrolled students. Faculty, students, and community organizations are invited to propose and co-sponsor public programming with the Library. If you wish to teach the book, participate in events, or support UCSB Reads 2027, please contact UCSBReads@library.ucsb.edu.
The vital and timely themes of Enshittification offer an essential opportunity to reflect on our relationship with technology, corporate accountability, and the public interest. At its core, Doctorow’s work asks an increasingly important question for universities: Who controls the infrastructure on which knowledge depends? As AI reshapes how we discover, create, and use information, libraries play a critical role in keeping research open, trustworthy, and in the hands of researchers and the public. We look forward to exploring this remarkable book with you.
