The Information Society: A Sceptical View

Preface.

1. What is the Global Information Society?.

The Idea of an Information Society.

Four Central Claims about the Information Society.

2. Locating the ‘Information Age' in History:.

The New Age.

Technological Determinism and the Information Age.

Lewis Mumford and Technological History.

Marx, Capitalism and the Information Society.

The Informationalization of Society.

3. Information Capital, Property and Labour:.

The Transformation of Work.

Statistics and the Information Society.

What is Service Work?.

The End of Work as We Know it?.

The Continuity of Property Relations.

(Information) Labour in the Global Economy.

4. Communities, Individuals and Politics in the Information Society:.

Politics in the Information Age.

(New) Political Communities.

Images, Gifts and Information Politics.

Individualism in the Information Society.

Communicating Politics.

5. W(h)ither the State?.

Early Views of the State in the Information Age.

Sidelining the State.

‘And Still it Moves'.

Globalization, the Information Society and the State.

A Death Frequently Foretold.

6. Back to the Future:.

Shortcomings of Technological Forecasting.

The Dual Dynamic of Information Society.

Sceptical yet Hopeful.

Appendix: Intellectual Property.

References.

Index