What are we to make of the information society? Many prominent theorists have argued it to be the most profound and comprehensive transformation of economy, culture and politics since the rise of the industrial way of life in the 18th century. Some saw its arrival in a positive light, where the dreams of democracy, of ‘connectivity’ and ‘efficiency’ constituted a break with the old ways. But other thinkers viewed it more in terms of the recurrent nightmare of capitalism, where the processes of exploitation, commodification and alienation are given much freer rein than ever before. In this book Robert Hassan, a prominent theorist in new media and its effects, analyses and critically appraises these positions and forms them into a coherent narrative to illuminate the phenomenon.
Surveying the works of major information society theorists from Daniel Bell to Nicholas Negroponte, and from Vincent Mosco to Manuel Castells, The Information Society is an invaluable resource for understanding the nature of the information society—as well as the meta-processes of neoliberal globalisation and the revolution in information technologies that made it possible.
Robert Hassan has successfully updated the stale notion of information society. From the perspective of Internet culture Hassan takes apart the self-evident information technology hype. Instead of leading us further down into cold, sociological formulas, The Information Society engages in contemporary debates around the network effect. Hassan singles out two processes: commodification and acceleration. The critical contribution centres around the speed illusion of today's network society, culminating in the often heard question: how do you deal with chronic distraction?
Geert Lovink
Robert Hassan provides an accessible and valuable review of the Information Society with his own forceful argument for the role of neo-liberalism in shaping this accelerating and volatile world in which we must live.
Frank Webster
ISBN: 9780745641805 / £15.99 GBP / $24.95 USD - Buy from Polity Books
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