Theories of the Information and Post-industrial Society
David M. Berry The concept of what might broadly be termed the informational society has a number of fascinating theoretical elaborations, each emerging from distinct intellectual and disciplinary tradition. In this post (adapted from a table I created for my undergraduate students), I've attempted to provide is a map of this complex terrain, showing the various conceptual frameworks that have sought to capture the socio-technical transformations of the late 20th Century and into the 21st. I reproduce these tables which are meant to give a sense of alternative ways in which digital changes have been theorised – however they are not intended to be comprehensive, and indeed there are many others who have used similar historical eras to provide a sense of the changes. In Table 1, I attempt to trace the genealogy of information society concepts across different theoretical traditions. What becomes apparent is the shifting emphasis from early post-industrial formulations (Bell) concer...
