Theories of the Information Society (The International Library of Sociology)

Rating:
Summary: A fabulously straightforward review of a very complex issue.
Review: An absolute must for anyone interested in the 'Information Society'. Webster tackles the fundamental questions other authors neatly sidestep; primarily, what is meant by the term 'Information Society', what foundation, if any, there is for the widespread acceptance of this 'new society' and an indepth look at alternative theories which stress continuity as opposed to revolution!

On the whole a well balanced, well written, thoughtful account of a very challenging concept.

Rating:
Summary: Who are you kidding
Review: Buy this book at your peril. The author of this book has, it would appear, done alot of research and he wants you to know it. The book is difficult and language laborious. This might be an ok read for advanced sociologist but for your average computing proffessional or student of computing its a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: big one
Review: i have my number.how about myself number?

Rating:
Summary: A sociologist looks at myths of the information revolution
Review: This book by an Oxford sociologist may bring tears, if not frustration, to Internet geeks, and information policy wonks alike. Be forewarned!

With so much hyperbole surrounding the computing revolution, the Internet, and the explosion in communications, it is easy to forget that most of us simply assume that a new information either now exists or is emerging. The author of this book challenges this assumption by looking at half a dozen views of the so-called information society advanced by different sociologists in recent decades. Webster in particular seems to distinguish the positions of classical socilogists like Schiller, Giddens, and Habermas from the so-called post-modern or post-industrial writings on information society of Daniel Bell, Manuel Castells, or Mark Poster.By critically examining these views, the author concludes that there is much more information available than ever before and that it plays a pivotal role in everything we do from leisure activities to business transactions to government activities, as shown by the various technical measures of information society which various writers have proposed. However, and this is the clincher, there does not appear to be any consensus of whether the information society exists or exactly what it is supposed to look like as different from previous society.

Is Weber's point and his scepticism simply semantic sophistry or a substantively insightful analysis? Depending on your disposition and your appreciation of sociological literature, this is a question you will have to decide in you choose to follow the argument in this book. The author is hardly naive about the realities of technological change, but deeply questions the technological determinism which he sees many writers and thinkers implicitly assuming is shaping contemporary social relations. He prefers to think of present developments as an extension of the past, but with a greater informatization of social relations.

I suspect that the author's argument is subtle, and possibly valid, but he may have done well to cast his analysis in broader terms than those of an insider debate among sociologists.