The Information Society, (4 Volume Set)

‘The information society’ refers to a constellation of developments arising from the growing use of communication technologies in the acquisition, storage, and processing of information, and the role of information in supporting the creation and exchange of knowledge. Research on information societies really began to take off in the 1970s when Daniel Bell wrote about ‘the information age’. While there were earlier works that focused on the growing importance of information in the economy, it was not until the mid-1990s and the spread of the Internet that this field of study experienced a huge expansion across a broad range of disciplines in the social sciences and beyond. A critical mass of scholarship has now accumulated, establishing ‘the information society’ and ‘information societies’ as a terrain of substance and complexity, the exploration and understanding of which requires increasingly sophisticated navigation skills. As research in and around the area continues to flourish as never before, this new title in Routledge’s Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature, and to provide a map of the area as it has emerged and developed over the last thirty years or so.

The Information Society is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students - as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the field - as a vital one-stop research resource.

Volume I : History and Perspectives

Part 1 : History and Early Debates
Chapter 1 : The Structure and Function of Communications in Society’, in Lyman Bryson (ed.), The Communication of Ideas
Chapter 2 : Effects of The Improvements of Communication Media’, Journal of Economic History, 1960
Chapter 3 : Knowledge Society’, New Society, 1969
Chapter 4 : The Rise of Communications Policy Research’, Journal of Communication, 1974
Chapter 5 : Global Implications of Information Society’, Journal of Communication, 1978
Chapter 6 : Stocks and Flows of Knowledge’, Kyklos, 1979
Chapter 7 : The Social Framework of The Information Society’, in T : Forrester (ed.), The Microelectronics Revolution
Chapter 8 : Computopia : Rebirth of Theological Synergism, The Information Society as Post-Industrial Society

Part 2 : FurTher Reflections and Critical Perspectives
Chapter 9 : Whose New International Economic and Information Order?’, Communication, 1980
Chapter 10 : The Control Revolution : Technological And Economic Origins of The Information Society
Chapter 11 : From Post-Industrialism to Information-Society : A New Social Transformation’, Sociology, 1986
Chapter 12 : The Social Economics of Information Technology, New Communication Technologies and The Public Interest
Chapter 13 : Deconstructing The Information Era’, Futures, 1998
Chapter 14 : The Information Society : From Fordism to Gatesism’, 1995, Canadian Journal of Communication, 1995
Chapter 15 : Plan and Control : Towards a Cultural History of The Information Society’, Theory and Society, 1989
Chapter 16 : Porat, Bell, and The Information-Society Reconsidered : The Growth of Information Work in The Early 20th Century’, Information Processing & Management, 1990
Chapter 17 : Forthcoming Features : Information and Communications Technologies and The Sociology of The Future’, Sociology, 2000
Chapter 18 : Deciphering Information Technologies : Modern Societies as Networks’, European Journal of Social Theory, 2000
Chapter 19 : An Archaeology of The Global Era : Constructing a Belief’, 2002, Media Culture & Society, 2002
Chapter 20 : Class Analysis and The Information Society as Mode of Production’, Javnost-The Public, 2004
Chapter 21 : Making Sense of The Information Age : Sociology and Cultural Studies’, Information, Communication and Society, 2005
Chapter 22 : Putting The Critique Back into a Critique of Information : Refusing to Follow The Order’, Information, Communication & Society, 2006
Chapter 23 : Communication, Power and Counter-Power in The Network Society’, International Journal of Communication, 2007

Volume II : Knowledge, Economics, and Organization

Part 3 : Knowledge and Economics
Chapter 24 : Structural Change and Assimilation of New Technologies in The Economic and Social Systems’, Futures, 1983
Chapter 25 : The Dynamo and The Computer : An Historical Perspective on The Modern Productivity Paradox’, The American Economic Review, 1990
Chapter 26 : Fast Structural Change and Slow Productivity Change : Some Paradoxes in The Economics of Information Technology’, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 1990
Chapter 27 : Information : An Emerging Dimension of Institutional Analysis’, Journal of Economic Issues, 1987
Chapter 28 : Beyond Interests, Ideas, and Technology : An Institutional Approach to Communication and Information Policy’, The Information Society, 2004
Chapter 29 : The Knowledge-Based Economy : A Sisyphus Model’, PromeTheus, 1997
Chapter 30 : Communications : Blindspot in Economics, Culture, Communication and Dependency : The Tradition of H : A : Innis
Chapter 31 : The Explicit Economics of Knowledge Codification and Tacitness’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 2000
Chapter 32 : Will New Information and Communication Technologies Improve The "Codification" of Knowledge?’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 2000

Part 4 : Open Networks
Chapter 33 : The Power of Gifts : Organizing Social Relationships in Open Source Communities’, Information Systems Journal, 2001
Chapter 34 : The Economics of Technology Sharing : Open Source and Beyond’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2005
Chapter 35 : The Transformation of Open Source Software’, MIS Quarterly, 2006

Part 5 : Inequality and The Digital Divide
Chapter 36 : Toward a Critique of The Information Society’, Media, Culture and Society, 1985
Chapter 37 : Inventing The Global Information Future’, Futures, 1998
Chapter 38 : An Investigation of The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Information Science, 1999
Chapter 39 : Weaving The Western Web : Explaining Differences in Internet Connectivity among OECD Countries’, Telecommunications Policy, 1999
Chapter 40 : From Digital Divides to Digital Entitlements in Knowledge Societies’, Current Sociology, 2002
Chapter 41 : Reconceptualizing The Digital Divide’, First Monday, 2002
Chapter 42 : Africa as a Knowledge Society : A Reality Check’, International Information & Library Review, 2006
Chapter 43 : Digital Divide Research, Achievements and Shortcomings’, Poetics, 2006

Part 6 : Widespread Organizational Change
Chapter 44 : Computerization and Social Transformations’, Science, Technology and Human Values, 1991
Chapter 45 : New Worlds of Computer-Mediated Work’, Harvard Business Review, 1982
Chapter 46 : Strategic Information Systems Planning : Myths, Reality and Guidelines for Successful Implementation’, European Journal of Information Systems, 1991
Chapter 47 : Using Technology and Constituting Structures : A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations’, Organization Science, 2000
Chapter 48 : ower, Identity and New Technology Homework : Implications for "New Forms" of Organizing’, Organization Studies, 2001

Volume III : Democracy, Governance, and Regulation

Part 7 : Democracy, Networks, and Power
Chapter 49 : Information Poverty and Political Inequality : Citizenship in The Age of Privatized Communications’, Journal of Communication, 1989
Chapter 50 : Political Science Research on Teledemocracy’, Social Science Computer Review, 1992
Chapter 51 : Democratic Rationalization Technology, Power and Freedom, Readings in The Philosophy of Technology
Chapter 52 : The Media and The Public Sphere, Habermas and The Public Sphere
Chapter 53 : New Mediation and Direct Representation : Reconceptualizing Representation in The Digital Age’, New Media & Society
Chapter 54 : Real-time Politics : The Internet and The Political Process’, The Information Society, 2002
Chapter 55 : Political Authority in a Mediated Age’, Theory and Society, 2003
Chapter 56 : The Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication : Dispersion and Deliberation’, Political Communication, 2005
Chapter 57 : Rethinking ICTs : ICTs on a Human Scale’, European Journal of Communication, 2006

Part 8 : Governing Networks
Chapter 58 : Communication Policy in The Global Information Economy : WhiTher The Public Interest?, Public Communication The New Imperatives : Future Directions for Media Research
Chapter 59 : Law and Borders : The Rise of Law in Cyberspace’, Stanford Law Review, 1996
Chapter 60 : The Zones of Cyberspace’, Stanford Law Review, 1996
Chapter 61 : The Internet and US Communication Policy-Making in Historical and Critical Perspective’, Journal of Communication, 1996
Chapter 62 : The Second Enclosure Movement and The Construction of The Public Domain’, Law and Contemporary Problems, 2003
Chapter 63 : The Telecom Crisis and Beyond’, Gazette : The International Journal for Communication Studies, 2005
Chapter 64 : Internet Co-Governance : Towards a Multilayer Multiplayer Mechanism of Consultation, Coordination and Cooperation’, E-Learning, 2006
Chapter 65 : Commons-Based Peer Production and Virtue’, Journal of Political Philosophy, 2006

Volume IV : Everyday Life

Part 9 : Everyday Life Online and Offline
Chapter 66 : Transnational Virtual Community? Exploring Implications for Culture, Power and Language’, Organization, 1997
Chapter 67 : Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Community at The End of The Freudian Century’, Sociological Inquiry, 1997
Chapter 68 : Social Implications of The Internet’, Annual Review of Sociology, 2001
Chapter 69 : Theorizing Globalization’, Sociological Theory, 2002
Chapter 70 : Media Literacy and The Challenge of New Information and Communication Technologies’, The Communication Review, 2004
Chapter 71 : Complicity and Collusion in The Mediation of Everyday Life’, New Literary History, 2002
Chapter 72 : Identities : Traditions and New Communities’, Media Culture & Society, 2002
Chapter 73 : The Three Ages of Internet Studies : Ten, Five and Zero Years Ago’, New Media and Society, 2004
Chapter 74 : Where Information Society and Community Voice Intersect’, The Information Society, 2006
Chapter 75 : Nation and Diaspora : Rethinking Multiculturalism in a Transnational Context’, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 2007

Part 10 : Gender and The Cyborg
Chapter 76 : Gender and The Information Society : A Socially Structured Silence’, Journal of Communication, 1989
Chapter 77 : A Cyborg Manifesto : Science, Technology, and Socialist- Feminism in The Late Twentieth Century’, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women : The Reinvention of Nature
Chapter 78 : What Do We Know About Gender and Information Technology at Work : A Discussion of Selected Feminist Research’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 1995
Chapter 79 : Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies : In What State is The Art?’, Social Studies of Science, 2000
Chapter 80 : An Interrupted Postcolonial/Feminist Cyberethnography : Complicity and Resistance in The "Cyberfield"’, Feminist Media Studies, 2002
Chapter 81 : Gendering The Internet : Claims, Controversies and Cultures’, European Journal of Communication, 2002

Part 11 : Privacy and Surveillance
Chapter 82 : The Surveillance Society : Information Technology and Bureaucratic Social Control’, Journal of Communication, 1989
Chapter 83 : An Electronic Panopticon : A Sociological Critique of Surveillance Theory’, Sociological Review, 1993
Chapter 84 : The Distribution of Privacy Risks : Who Needs Protection?’, The Information Society, 1998
Chapter 85 : Tactical Memory : The Politics of Openness in The Construction of Memory’, First Monday, 2006
Chapter 86 : The Secret Self : The Case of Identity Theft’, Cultural Studies, 2007