Robin Mansell

"'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 ."--Publisher's website.

Critical Concepts in Sociology

The Information Society

Uta Wehn de Montalvo

Revolutionary information and communication technologies are contributing to dramatic changes in the competitiveness of global and local markets and in the way people conduct their business and everyday lives. The potential benefits and risks these changes present for developing countries and transitional economies are enormous. This comprehensive, authoritative reference book examines the ways in which these powerful technologies are being harnessed to development goals, thus helping to reduce the risk of exclusion and create new opportunities for developing countries. The report emphasizes the urgency of developing new social and technological infrastructures so as to ensure that new technologies are used effectively. It also offers outlines and practical steps intended to guide stake-holders interested in shaping their future innovative knowledge societies.

Information Technology for Sustainable Development

Knowledge Societies

Roger Silverstone

This work investigates the politics of information and communication technologies

The Politics of Information and Communication Technologies

Communication by Design

The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society offers critical assessments of theoretical and applied research on digitally-mediated communication, a central area of study in the 21st century.

The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society

"This book is for students of the past, present, and future communication system. It is for people in policy, business, and civil society who want to influence change in this system and also for people who are largely unaware that what they do every day is changing this system. I examine some of the causes and consequences of innovations in the modern digital communication system. These have been at the centre of my interest in social transformation for a long time. Investigations of what has come to be known as the information society normally are conducted within disciplinary boundaries in the humanities, social sciences, or natural and physical sciences. In this book, I cross these boundaries, something I have been encouraged to do throughout my career"--Preface, p. [vii]

Communication, Innovation, and Governance

Imagining the Internet

Bruce Girard

Fernando Perini

In recent years the internet and other network technologies have emerged as a central issue for development in Latin America and the Caribbean. They have shown their potential to increase productivity and competitiveness in the economy, to create new ways to deliver education and health services, and to be driving forces for the modernisation of the provision of public services. This book examines some of the key unanswered questions: Will the internet in Latin America and the Caribbean remain open over the next ten years? Will online surveillance increasingly challenge individual privacy? Will open data, social media and new forms of participation improve democracy in the region? Will we be able to harness the collaborative potential of the internet to create more socially meaningful and sustainable economies? Will digital education, science and creativity flourish in the region, reflecting the diversity and culture of its people? The answers to these questions will be central to determining whether or not the internet will effectively contribute to a more open and developed society in our corner of the world. The book builds on a seminar, "Open Development: Exploring the future of the information society in Latin America and the Caribbean," held in Montevideo on 2-3 April 2013. Organised by Fundacion Comunica and IDRC, and held alongside the "Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean," the seminar was an opportunity to reflect on the direction of the changes happening in the region, to bring new themes to the table and to explore how they can better be addressed in regional efforts. The 25 chapters in the book include the reflections of many of the region's leading experts in the area. Rather than present a single consolidated perspective, the authors dive into the issues, explore new ways to frame the problems and seek new solutions. Despite the considerable diversity, the book highlights many emerging points of agreement about new opportunities and challenges for the information society in the region.

The Future of the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Enabling Openness

Marc Raboy

The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy offers insights into the boundaries of this field of study, assesses why it is important, who is affected, and with what political, economic, social and cultural consequences. Provides the most up to date and comprehensive collection of essays from top scholars in the field Includes contributions from western and eastern Europe, North and Central America, Africa and Asia Offers new conceptual frameworks and new methodologies for mapping the contours of emergent global media and communication policy Draws on theory and empirical research to offer multiple perspectives on the local, national, regional and global forums in which policy debate occurs

The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy

W. E. Steinmueller

Artificial intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data from and about users. These companies are largely self-regulating in Western countries. How do economic theories explain the rise of a very few dominant platforms? Mansell and Steinmueller compare and contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy explanations. They show how these perspectives can lead to contrasting claims about platform benefits and harms. Uneven power relationships between platform operators and their users are treated differently in these economic traditions. Sometimes leading to advocacy for regulation or for public provision of digital services. Sometimes indicating restraint and precaution. The authors challenge the reader to think beyond the inevitability of platform dominance to create new visions of how platforms might operate in the future.

Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics

The information revolution has been described as 'the biggest technological juggernaut that ever rolled' and every day we hear more about the Global Information Infrastructure. The information and communications technologies (ICTs) of the 1990s enable the electronic production and consumption of increasingly vast quantities of information. They affect business, consumer, education and leisure activity. The consequences of these changes are unpredictable and contradictory, raising issuesfor governments, business, organizations and individuals. This book gets to grips with recent developments and offers a new understanding of their likely effect. Because of the pervasive and quite unique characteristics of ICTs as a technology system, the authors argue that it is only through an interdisciplinary approach that we can fully grasp the implications and explore the uncertainties of the inter-relationship between the technical and the socio-economic. Moving from economicsto sociology and political science in its study of information and communication, this book will be essential reading for all those in these disciplines concerned to understand the ICT challenge. Two central concepts of design and capability run through the book, and the authors apply them to developments from the micro (domestic) level to the macro (international) level. Based on work done in the major UK research programme PICT (the Programme on Information and Communication Technologies), the book is probing and reflective; its purpose is to provide tools of analysis rather than a catalogue of developments. Throughout the authors argue that the information age is about people, social organization, adaptation and control and not just technologies.

Robin Mansell

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