Lecture 15: The Global Information Society
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Introduction
- One of the best and most humane books on the emerging global technological society is Ursula Franklin, The Real World of Technology, 2nd edition, Toronto: Anansi, 1992. This edition includes several new chapters on the global information society. Another book that shares a similar approach to technology is Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, New York, Vintage Books, 1992, 1993. The chapter on computer technology (7th) is a bit outdated and not very good, but the general discussion of technology is sound and well argued. Check also Neil Postman Writing on the Web , as well as Lee Siegel's recent Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob (Spiegel & Grau, 2008).
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Among the large number of recent texts on these issues, it's worth remembering also Dan Schiller,
Digital Capitalism, The MIT Press, 1999, and Donald Gutstein, e.con, Toronto: Stoddart,
1999. These books, while acknowledging the positive achievements and promises of the new era, share a critical stance
towards the eccesses and the dangers of the new technologies and of globalization. Since most current literature on
globalization and information technology tends to be uncritically enthusiastic about them, I don't believe there is
much of a need to recommend such books. However, to get the flavor of this kind of literature, you may want to check,
for example, Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, New York: Vintage Books, 1996, or Don Tapscott,
The Digital Economy, McGraw-Hill, 1995. For an interesting public debate on globalization, organized by
the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science between the Financial Times and Le Monde
Diplomatique, see
Is Globalisation Inevitable and Desirable? . - The The Corporate Library "is intended to serve as a central repository for research, study and critical thinking about the nature of the modern global corporation, with a special focus on corporate governance and the relationship between company management, their boards and their shareowners."
- One of the most common fears brought about by the advent of the information society and by globalization is that of
the loss of jobs. While it is true that the knowledge industry creates new jobs, perhaps especially in the long run,
it seem to be equally true that at least in the short run (one generation?) many people do lose their job, with little
hope of finding a new one, particularly if--for a variety of reasons--they can not take advantage of re-training. Read at
least the executive summary of Worker Displacement During the Late 1990s,
released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor.
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An interesting manifesto has been issued by Technorealism.
which addresses head-on the fundamental question: "In this heady age of rapid technological change, we all struggle
to maintain our bearings. The developments that unfold each day in communications and computing can be thrilling and
disorienting. One understandable reaction is to wonder: Are these changes good or bad? Should we welcome or fear them?"
Read also Edward Rothstein's commentary on the New York Times A Benign Declaration Treated as Revolutionary.
Another good site is The Turning Point Project, "a
non-profit organization, formed in 1999 specifically to design and produce a series of educational advertisements
concerning the major issues of the new millennium...The issues discussed are those that will be crucial in determining the
quality of life on Earth in the near and distant future. Despite this, they have not been given the in-depth coverage in
the major media that they deserve. Signers of the ads are part of a coalition of more than 50 non-profit organizations
that favor democratic, localized, and ecologically sustainable alternatives to current practices and policies."
Check also Neil Postman's Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change .
- Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee (the creator of the Web) published an interesting and optimistic view of the new science of the Web in the October 2008 issue of Scientific American. In Web Science Emerges, they suggest that "studying the Web will reveal better ways to exploit information, prevent identity theft, revolutionize industry and manage our ever growing online lives."
Topics
- Ursula Franklin defines "technology as practice." Technology is not "wheels and gears," nor computers, nor networks, nor the space station. "Technology, like democracy, includes ideas and practices; it includes myths and various models of reality. And, like democracy, technology changes the social and individual relationships between us. It has forced us to examine and redefine our notions of power and of accountability." (op.cit., p. 2)
- Consider now the Recommendations to the European Council by the High-Level Group on the Information Society,
Europe and the Global Information Society.
The message of the Summary of Recommendations is quite clear: "This Report urges the European Union to put its
faith in market mechanisms as the motive power to carry us into the Information Age. This means that actions must
be taken at the European level and by Member States to strike down entrenched positions which put Europe at a
competitive disadvantage:
- it means fostering an entrepreneurial mentality to enable the emergence of new dynamic sectors of the economy
- it means developing a common regulatory approach to bring forth a competitive, Europe-wide, market for information services
- it does NOT mean more public money, financial assistance, subsidies, dirigisme, or protectionism.
In addition to its specific recommendations, the Group proposes an Action Plan of concrete initiatives based on a partnership between the private and public sectors to carry Europe forward into the information society."
- While the Report acknowledges that "all revolutions generate uncertainty, discontinuity--and opportunity," it hastens to add that "how we respond, how we turn current opportunities into real benefits, will depend on how quickly we can enter the European information society." In other words, it takes for granted that the only way to address uncertainty is to jump on the bandwagon, instead of trying to analyze the underlying premises and their implications.
- Ursula Franlin's book does precisely that. She digs out and examines the hidden assumptions. How does she do it? For starters, she notices the connection between technology and culture. "Looking at technology as practice, indeed as formalized practice, has some quite interesting consequences. One is that it links technology directly to culture, because culture, after all, is a set of socially accepted practices and values." She then distinguishes two types of technology, "work-related technologies" and "control-related" technologies. While the former is aimed at making work practices easier, the latter's purpose is to strengthen control over the work process. Here is the example she uses: "Think of a word processor. A free-standing word processor is indeed work-related technology. But link those word processors into a work station--that is, into a system--and the technology becomes control-related. Now workers can be timed, assignments can be broken up, and the interaction between the operators can be monitored. Most modern technological changes involve control, and thus new control-related applications have increased much faster than work-related ones." (op cit., p. 10) The last remark is important and characteristic of Franklin's analysis. It is not that control-related technologies are 'bad,' but that their presence is becoming 'dominant,' thus altering an important balance. This is true of many other features of the global information society. For instance, she defines "prescriptive technology" as one predicated on the principle of the division of labor, inaugurated on a large scale during the Industrial Revolution, and one that is used not only in the production of goods, but also "in administrative and economic activities and in many aspects of governance." She then observes that prescriptive technologies "have created a culture of compliance. The acculturation to compliance and conformity has, in turn, accelerated the use of prescriptive technologies in administration, government, and social services." After showing how prescriptive technologies are related to a growing emphasis on production, she then concludes: "The unchallenged prevalence of the production model in the mindset and political discourse of our time, and the model's misapplication to blatantly inappropriate situations, seems to me an indication of just how far technology as practice has modified our culture." (op.cit., p. 26)
- These and many other examples mean that "what turned the promised liberation into enslavement are not the
products of technology per se--the car, the computer, or the sewing machine--but the structures and infrastructures
that are put into place to facilitate the use of these products and to develop dependency on them." (op.cit.,
p. 100)
Small is Beautiful
- What can be done? After recalling the message of E F Schumacher's famous book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (new edition with commentaries, Hartley & Marks, 1998), and stressing the fact that "the world of technology is the sum total of what people do," and thus that its "redemptive value can only come from changes in what people, individually and collectively, do or refrain from doing," Franklin zeroes in on 'public discourse,' which "needs to break away from the technological mindset to focus on justice, fairness, and equality in the global sense. Once technological practices are questioned on a principled basis and, if necessary, rejected on that level, new practical ways of doing what needs to be done will evolve." (op.cit., p. 125)
- This is precisely why I have not indulged here in the usual recitation of the multitude of gizmos and gadgets that make globalization possible. Check Negroponte's or Topscott's books for those. What we really need, first and foremost, is to develop a critical stance about what lies behind 'the wheels and the gears.'
- The general issue of public participation in science and technology policy making is the mission of
The Loka
Institute, "a non-profit research and advocacy organization concerned with the social, political,
and environmental repercussions of research, science and technology...'Loka' is derived from the ancient Sanskrit word,
'lokasamgraha,' which means: unity of the world, interconnectedness of society, and the duty to perform action for
the benefit of the world. Founded in 1987, the Loka Institute...works to make science and technology more responsive
to social and environmental concerns by expanding opportunities for grassroots, public-interest group, everyday
citizen, and worker involvement in vital facets of science and technology decision making." On the Loka site
you may want to read their "Democratic Politics of Technology: the Missing Half - Using Democratic Criteria in
Participatory Technology Decisions," which also provides an introduction to their...technology.
- In the next lecture we will start discussing the Internet and the web, perhaps the most visible expression of the global information society.
- In the global society, the problem is that the 'local' is being displaced by the 'global.' But the local is precisely where people find and nourish their history and their culture. Once again, it is not that the 'global' is bad, but that it dominates and replaces the 'local.' To be citizens of the world, or even 'netizens,' should not prevent us from being also citizens of our little gardens.
- Ursula Franklin notes that "rarely are there public discussions about the merits or problems of adopting a particular technology...the political system in most of today's real world of technology are not structured to allow public debate and public input at the point of planning technological enterprises of national scope," Do you agree? Can you find examples to support or question her observation?
- What do you think about the Technorealist manifesto?
Last Modification Date: 10 March 2010