The impact of the `information society' are multiform and transdisciplinary. There are few areas of social, political and economic life that have not been affected or challenged by the new technologies of information and communication.
In this short introduction, Armand Mattelart unpacks the notion of the information society, and examines why it has become the dominant paradigm for social change in the 21st Century. Critically, he also asks why the notion has come to dominant in the absence of any critical examination of the conditions under which it has been produced. Combining a long-term historical and geopolitical perspective, Mattelart questions the axioms used to legitimate the Information Society and critically assesses the ways in which it has been conceptualised as a theoretical concept as well as policy making tool.
This introduction will be of interest to all students of media and communication, as well as social scientists in general.Mattelart unpacks the notion of the information society, and examines why it has become the dominant paradigm for social change. He also asks why the notion has come to be dominant in the absence of any critical examination of the conditions under which it has been produced.Highly critical approach, essential for a deeper understanding of rhetorical, ideological and policy issues in the information society agendaThe book is useful in serving as background reading to understand the contexts of the information society we operate in.Introduction
The Cult of Numbers
Managing the Industrial and Scientific Age
The Emergence of Computers
Post-industrial Scenarios
The Metamorphoses of Public Policy
The Geopolitical Stakes of the Global Information Society
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