Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The information society is a key way in which contemporary social transformation is conceived. Used commonly by policymakers, journalists, and futurists as well as sociologists, the notion encompasses a diversity of arguments which have in common that they see information, and information technology (IT), as at the heart of the burgeoning social order. Greater volumes of data are being communicated by a fast-growing range of technologies, with profound social consequences for nearly every aspect of social life. On the basis of the growth of information flows and technologies, information society theorists argue that the changes underway represent not just quantitative but qualitative social change – transforming almost every realm of social life, including households, communities, education, health, work, surveillance, democracy, and identities. Together, these changes are seen as constituting a new form of society, comparable to the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society. Rather than tightly defined, the scope of information society debates ranges widely and overlaps with other approaches to understanding contemporary social change. Other terms (“post-industrial society,” “knowledge society,” and “network society”) carry similar and often overlapping meanings; while for some social theorists, different labels (“late modernity,” “postmodernity,” or “globalization”) better ... log in or subscribe to read full text