A summary of all mandatory chapters of the 4th edition of Theories of the information Society of Frank Webster for the exam of Technology, Policy & Society. Given in BA3 by dr. Moody in Bestuurskunde and MISOC at Erasmus university Rotterdam. The chapters included are: 1) Introduction; 2) Definitio...
Literatuur Technology Policy & Society
Boek
Week 1
Webster H1 Introduction
The question of what society we live in and where it’s going is a daunting and bewildering
task, involving complex and changeable circumstances. The duty of social sciences is to
identify features of how we live now, to see and influence where we are headed better. Most
try to research terms such as capitalism, industrialism, totalitarianism and democracy, but
there will be debate about these labels when applied to particular circumstances, so there is
a constant need to qualify the generalizing terminology. But these concepts give us a means
of identifying and beginning to understand essential elements of the world we live in, so we
tend to adopt these big terms.
The starting point of this book is the emergence of an apparently new way of conceiving
temporary societies: the information age, where the mode of information predominates.
- But there are different opinions on how to make sense of it. there are diverging
optimistic and pessimistic views. But all scholars agree information has a special
position, however there is no agreement on characteristics and significance other
than that.
- This curiosity about the currency of information sparked the idea of the book. The
concern with information persists, as well as variability about what it amounts to.
- Another agenda emerged: the internet became widely available during the 90s as a
new “information superhighway” was brought by information and communications
technologies (ICTs). Most recently there was an explosion of social media where
users can simultaneously consume and produce information (prosumer). The notion
that anywhere and anytime people can always be connected and technologies can
bring people together that were previously isolated and so inflating their power.
There has also been a move away from technology towards the softer sides of information:
concern moves away from what technology is doing to society towards what people can do
with technologies that are now pervasive, accessible and adaptable: people are key players.
→ This shift in analysis from technology to people inspired this 4th edition.
- Attention will be on different interpretations of the import of information to look at a
common area of interest, even though we will see these interpretations are extremely
diverse with little agreement the closer we examine. This book is organized to
scrutinize major contributions towards our understanding of information in the
modern world.
- The book starts from theories and thinkers in the chapters, ranging across disciplines
at the centre of contemporary debates in social science, as they try to understand
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