Dr. Neville Bolt’s Unmapping the 21st Century: Between Networks and the State was published by Bristol University Press.

Co-authored with Nicholas Michelsen, Dr. Bolt’s new book titled Unmapping the 21st Century: Between Networks and the State was published in July 2022. It explores the limits of maps in explaining today’s disturbed reality, and by “unmapping” the world, reveals how networks and hierarchies are co-created in the twenty-first century.

The twenty-first century has been characterized by great turbulence, climate change, a global pandemic, and the decay of democracy.

Drawing on post-structural political theory, this book explores two dominant concepts used to make sense of our disturbed reality: the state and the network. The book explains how they are inextricably interwoven, while showing why they complicate the way we interpret our present.
In seeking a better understanding of today’s world, this book argues that we need to pull apart the familiar lines of our maps. By looking beneath and across these lines, this ‘unmapping’ presents new insights and opportunities for a better future.