Information Society
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22369588 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hugh Mackay (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Pages | 1-6 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosi043 |
| OpenAlex | W4242293361 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
The information society is a key way in which contemporary social transformation is conceived. Used commonly by policy‐makers, journalists, and futurists as well as sociologists, the notion encompasses a diversity of arguments which have in common that they see information, and information technology (IT), as at the heart of the burgeoning social order. Greater volumes of data are being communicated by a fast‐growing range of technologies, with profound social consequences for nearly every aspect of social life. On the basis of the growth of information flows and technologies, information society theorists argue that the changes underway represent not just quantitative but qualitative social change – transforming almost every realm of social life, including households, communities, education, health, work, surveillance, democracy, and identities. Together, these changes are seen as constituting a new form of society, comparable to the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society. Rather than being tightly defined, the scope of information society debates ranges widely and overlaps with other approaches to understanding contemporary social change. Other terms (“postindustrial society,” “knowledge society,” and “network society”) carry similar and often overlapping meanings; while for some social theorists different labels (“late modernity,” “postmodernity,” or “globalization”) better characterize contemporary social transformations. Even those who focus on the “information society” use the term to refer to different social processes
Agrarian society · Civil society · Contemporary society · Environmental ethics · Geography · Globalization · Industrial society · Information society · Late modernity · Modernity · Network society · Political science · Politics · Postmodernity · Realm · Social change · Social science · Social transformation · Sociology · Law · Social Media and Politics
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |