Global Information Society Technology, Knowledge, and Mobility [Hardcover]

This book, part of the 'Human Geography in the Twenty-First Century' series, is aptly titled. The underlying focus is the impact of society's new and vast ability to access information and communicate rapidly worldwide. The first part of the book primarily provides observational aspects of an information society and attempts to define those observations. The chapters in part 2, 'Mapping the Global Information Society,' discuss different geographic areas. This section is very important since the likely readership will be from the US, and getting an international perspective on the impact of information can be enlightening. The third section builds on the previous chapters to show the importance of good policy and planning. Readers may find the makeup of the authors unique. Wilson and Corey (both, Michigan State) and Kellerman (emer., Univ. of Haifa, Israel) have combined expertise in the fields of geography and urban/regional planning and design; their writing reflects their wide range of experience in these areas. The emphasis of the book is not necessarily on technology itself, but on analyzing the policy and planning behind the rollout of technological innovations and their impact on different regions of the world and different population subsets. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.[T]he book has something for everyone. For those needing a succinct summary of the intellectual underpinnings of the information society, or a brief compendium of data on nearly all countries, the book has little competition. For those needing guidance on how to involve stakeholders in a serious attempt to grapple locally with global change, that is here, too.Global Information Society . . . offers a helping hand at a particularly important time when changes in technology, the economy, and our society continue to gather pace. The book takes the readers on a historical journey, explaining how the concept of information socil3œ