The life and times of the Information Society

Abstract

The assessment of scholarly literature on the Information Society provided in this paper sets out and distinguishes between the analytical foundations of mainstream and critical contributions from a selection of disciplines and fields with a view to considering why there is so little reciprocal engagement among them and whether there are new opportunities to promote a dialogue with those who hold the power to establish policies and investment practices with regard to information and communication technologies.Based on a review of hundreds of works, it is argued that we need to consider a broader range of analytical frameworks if today's policies and strategies in this area are not to replicate relations of inequality and injustice. In particular, we need to acknowledge that a plurality of visions of future information societies exist, embracing potentially conflicting values and priorities, and more emphasis needs to be given to analytical approaches that privilege human well-being and inclusivity.

Social Media and Human Rights Advocacy

“…Furthermore, by celebrating the emancipatory potential of social media platforms, this view elides their commercial logics and thereby becomes a discourse that plays into the hands of social media companies wishing to benefit from association with democratic projects. In so doing, this perspective falls into line with the longstanding discourse, renewed with each ICT invention, that technology creates progress (Mansell, 2010;Fuchs, 2012;Waisbord, 2015).…”

Mapping Right to be Forgotten frames: Reflexivity and empirical payoffs at the intersection of network discourse and mixed network methods

“…This discourse is part and parcel of a "wave of technological enthusiasm" (Webster, 2005). Framings that connect to this discourse are often of a utopic flavor, associating information technologies with enormous social and economic benefits (Mansell, 2010). For example, communication networks are consistently, discursively promoted in frames of valued affordances for social movements (Tufekci, 2017), of innovation and greater wealth (Benkler, 2006), and most significantly, of increased pluralism and democracy (Shirky, 2008).…”

When Narratives Travel: The Occupy Movement in Latvia and Sweden

“…Furthermore, networks and hence the network society are based on ties or relationships between nodes. These relations are determining the centrality of certain nodes and for the peripherality of others (Mansell 2010). …”