The Information Age a constellation of developments Looking beyond a macro-historical logic – as it is claimed by Hobart and Xxxxxxxxx (2000) – the Information Age, is in its concrete mechanics linked to an intricate web of technological innovations and seminal theoretical insights that engender important economic and social transformations in the second half of the twentieth century. Sociologist Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx (2003) – who uses the terms ‘Information Society’ and ‘Information Age’ interchangeably – summarizes the elements of the web as follows: The notion of the information society took formal shape in the wake of the invention of artificial intelligence machines during the Second World War. It became a standard reference in academic, political and economic circles from the 1960s. The manufacture of a world of images related to the ‘information age’ continued apace throughout the following decade. The true geopolitical meaning of the neologisms created at the time to designate the new society would not come to light until the eve of the third millennium, with the proclamation of what is usually called the ‘information revolution’ and the arrival of the Internet as the new public- access network. (Xxxxxxxxx, 2003, p. 2) A more extensive, chronological selection of key contributions to the Information Age is listed in Appendix 10. The list contains: 1/ an overview of the technological inventions (grey background with black characters); 2/ seminal publications with their key contribution(s), the disciplinary field from which they emerged and the vocabulary that is being promoted with regard to describing a new societal situation; and 3/ elements of a more criticizing nature (grey background with white characters). An initial look at the sequential list of events confirms that the information-virus took root in a physics-mathematics-engineering environment and gradually extended its scope by affecting and receiving empowerment from a vast array of academic disciplines in the course of the 20th century with applications in e.g. biology, psychology, music theory, economics, sociology, public policy .The terms that figure in the titles and descriptions of the key contributions are wide-ranging and next to a clear focus on knowledge and information, we find powerful notions such as control, feedback, learning, communication, memory, expectation, meaning, objectivity, personal (knowledge and computers), industry, creativity, decision-making, ideology, action and society. A more sys...
The Information Age emergent, historical and open The notion of an Information Age is presented in Fig. 6.1 as an umbrella term that brings the aforementioned domain-aspects together and characterizes an era in which the retrieval, management, and transmission of information, especially by using computer technology, is a principal activity. The term seems to be at least vacant for the job: We grope for words to describe the full power and reach of this extraordinary change. Some speak of a looming Space Age, Information Age, Electronic Era, or Global Village. […] I myself have written extensively about the arrival of a "super-industrial society." Yet none of these terms, including my own, is adequate. (Xxxxxxx, 1980, p. 10) Sociologist Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx’x trilogy gave an important impetus to the generic use of the concept of an Information Age (Castells, 1996, 1997, 1998) but his choice of wording with regard to the title for his masterpiece is only briefly and pragmatically justified in a footnote: Titles are communicating devices. They should be user-friendly, clear enough for the reader to guess what is the real topic of the book, and worded in a fashion that does not depart excessively from the semantic frame of reference. Thus, in a world built around information technologies, information society, informatization, information superhighway […], and the like, a title such as The Information Age points straightforwardly to the questions to be raised, without prejudging the answers. (Castells, 1996/2010, p.21, note 31) With this terminological license in mind and within the aforementioned conceptual configuration the term ‘Information Age’ (Informationszeitalter, l’ère de l’information) allows reference to a historical period (1944-) where information seems to represent a crucial but not all-encompassing category within in the global arena. We thus conceive the Information Age as being emergent, historical, and open. The emergent quality of the Information Age is supported by outlining the five domains that are involved in the evolvement of the concept. The Information Age builds on a bottom-up coincidence of technological, theoretical, communicative, economical, and epistemic developments and is not a top- down societal ideology that pre-determines future implications. As such, the Information Age is connected and susceptible to a variety of minor influences and orientations which have the potential to cause a global butterfly-effect (see the influence of the developments such...
