Deciphering Information Technologies

Modern Societies as Networks

Bibliographic Data

ID2397574
AuthorsN Stehr (0000-0002-4402-9679, University of British Columbia, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume3
Issue1
Pages83-94
Publication date2000-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13684310022224697
OpenAlexW2041754885
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited20

This essay advances two sets of critical observations about Manuel Castells's suggestion and detailed elaboration of the idea that modern society from the 1980s onwards constitutes a network society and that the unity in the diversity of global restructuring has to be seen in the massive deployment of information and communication technologies in all spheres of modern social life. The criticism attends to the possibility that the emphasis on the social role of information technologies in advanced society amounts to a modern version of 'technological determinism'. A discussion of the so-called productivity paradox shows that cultural and social processes rather than technological regimes continue to be more important for the evolution of society

Criticism · Epistemology · Information society · Information technology · Political science · Restructuring · Social science · Sociology · Software deployment · Technological determinism · Anthropology · Computer Science · Law · Philosophy · University-Industry-Government Innovation Models