An Informational versus Network Perspective on the Information Society

Abstract

r The Network Society, by Darin Barney. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2005. 198 pp., $24.95 paper. ISBN 0-74562-669-6. r The Information Society: A Study of Continuity and Change, 4th ed., by John Feather. London: Facet Publishing, 2004. xx + 220 pp., $59.95 paper. ISBN 1-85604-497-1.We are in the midst of a period of societal change that we still seem to have difficulty in portraying. Many attempts to describe these changes have been made, and with each attempt to anticipate the future, the vision may become a little clearer to us. In the emerging portrait of the information society there seems to be agreement that information and knowledge (including their use, storage, production, communication, and dissemination) are to some extent more important than they have been previously (e.g., Webster, 2002). Although some form of information has always been a part of society, its importance has managed to expand into many new areas of social life not previously touched by so much specific information. Such new areas are consumption, family life, community, leisure, sexuality, sport, war, and so on (Hearn, 2004), not to mention, of course, that information-related work is today often seen as replacing much industrial production-the backbone of industrial society. It can thus be agreed that the spread and use of information comprise perhaps the single most important component in describing these changes; hence the notion most often used to describe these changes is the information society. Simultaneously, information or network technologies, which in part are the reason that it is so much easier to store and disseminate information today than previously, are also often seen as important components in the process of change. Whether information society really is a new form of society (i.e., post-industrial) or not is still a much-contested issue (Webster, 2002).For this essay I review two recent books on the subject of the information society. I begin with a short comparison of the two books, before I go into a more detailed presentation and discussion of each of them. The first, John Feather's fourth edition of The Information Society: A Study of Continuity and Change, is mainly intended as a broad introduction to the nature of the information society. The book enters the subject through the historical desires and developed devices to record, store, and disseminate information throughout society. Despite its general title, the focus is mainly on information, information technology, and information-related professions in the media and publishing industries. In the second book, The Network Society, Darin Barney takes a different approach. As the title implies, his focus is less on information and more on the concept of network and of the implications of network technologies on society, politics, economy, and identity. Barney is considering the information society in a more sociologically and philosophically oriented way, whereas Feather uses a more pragmatic and concrete approach.The main audience for Feather's book consist...

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