The Metaverse Series

The Metaverse Series is a forthcoming series of books from Taylor & Francis which will explore the role, opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse in the present and near future, from business and entertainment to our personal lives and to humanity’s future.

Social virtual worlds such as Active Worlds and Second Life gave an early glimpse of the possibilities of the Metaverse two decades ago. In recent years the widespread availability of virtual reality headsets, the pronouncements of companies like Meta and the increasing popularity of environments such as Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite and VRChat suggest that the Metaverse is a concept whose time may finally have come. 

The Metaverse Series will take a critical view of the potential and opportunities, dangers and challenges of the Metaverse. The series intends to focus more on the consensual social virtual space that the Metaverse creates rather than any specific technology used to build it. The value of the Metaverse  is that it offers people opportunities  to transcend and blur personal, cultural, geographic and temporal barriers, and even physical existence. Equally, inappropriate use may result in unimaginative education, unproductive collaboration, intolerance and psychological abuse, corporate greed and profiteering, and even government surveillance and control. Whilst many of its features are already finding their way into everyday activities, these early manifestations give little sense of the long term impact that the Metaverse could have on the future of humanity. Yet, even the form and scope of the “metaverse” are subject to debate, and this series will aim to ensure that such discussion is well informed.

Readable and accessible, each book in the series is written by an expert or experts in their field and will bring the  research and realities of the Metaverse to a broad readership including interested professionals, students, academics, researchers and lay readers. The Metaverse Series aims to provide readers with concise guides as to how the Metaverse is having an impact on many facets of our lives today, and the impact it may have in the future. By bringing in contributions from across a wide variety of disciplines, the series aims to ensure that the Metaverse is always presented  in context and that the analysis of the Metaverse is balanced and well grounded. 

If you are interested in knowing more about the series, or would even like to propose a book or chapter for the series, then please contact one of the series editors:

Prof. Maggi Savin-Baden:  m.savinbaden@worc.ac.uk                    

Eur. Ing. David Burden: david.burden@daden.co.uk