UC Santa Barbara has chosen Cory Doctorow’s non-fiction book, “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It,” for the 21st edition of its UCSB Reads common book program in 2027, as YubaNet reported.
The annual program brings together the campus community and local Santa Barbara residents to read a single book focused on modern issues. Selected by an advisory committee composed of faculty, staff, students, and local partners, the program focuses on interdisciplinary works by living authors that can be integrated directly into campus coursework.
First published by Macmillan in 2025, Doctorow’s book examines the economic lifespan of modern online platforms, including search engines, social media networks, e-commerce services, and app stores. The author outlines a three-stage progression in which digital services initially attract users through high quality and convenience, shift to exploit those users to attract business clients, and ultimately squeeze those commercial customers to maximize returns for shareholders. This pattern results in degraded digital services that restrict both workers and consumers. Alongside his critique of corporate tech control, Doctorow presents regulatory, legal, and technical methods intended to help the public reclaim online spaces.
Doctorow first coined the term enshittification in 2022, and the American Dialect Society subsequently designated it as its Word of the Year. The book itself received the 2026 Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction and earned praise in reviews from Publishers Weekly.
In a joint announcement regarding the 2027 selection, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost David Marshall and University Librarian Todd Grappone noted that the work raises important questions for academic institutions regarding who controls the digital infrastructure that underpins research and knowledge creation. They highlighted the role of research libraries in ensuring that information remains open, reliable, and accessible to scholars and the general public as artificial intelligence continues to alter how data is created and shared.
The UCSB Reads 2027 programming schedule will formally launch in January 2027 with a free book giveaway aimed at university students. The library will provide complimentary copies of the text for participating instructors and enrolled students to encourage faculty to incorporate the work into winter and spring quarter classes.
Throughout the winter and spring academic quarters, the university library will host free social, educational, and experiential events tied to the book's themes. Members of the faculty, student body, and local community groups have been invited to submit proposals to co-sponsor public events alongside the library. Individuals interested in teaching the text or participating in events can reach program organizers directly by email at [email protected].
The initiative will culminate on April 29, 2027, when Doctorow gives a free public lecture at Campbell Hall. The presentation is being hosted in partnership with UCSB Arts & Lectures.
Doctorow is a Canadian-British science fiction author, technology activist, and journalist who serves as a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He holds academic appointments at several institutions, including MIT, Cornell University, the Open University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His written work includes the novels “Little Brother” and “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.” In 2022, he received the Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Award honoring his lifetime achievements.
