Product Description

Mobilizing the Information Society comprehensively and critically examines the interaction between social, regulatory, and market developments underlying the growing use of new technologies such as the personal computer and the Internet. Based upon empirical research by an international team, it offers insights needed to understand public policy, corporate strategy, and individual choices taken in response to the deluge of new technological opportunities. A principal theme of Mobilizing the Information Society is that changes are governed by public decisions that establish the institutional framework in which the private sector operates. The quality and value of the information society for the citizen is not the inevitable consequence of market and technological forces. Policy choices, however, that fail to take market and technical influences into account will prove ineffective. The authors lay the foundation for improved theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve desired aims, and more effective policies for mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the information society. Mobilizing the Information Society offers unique insights into the social, economic, and political forces that are structuring the pathway to the information society, and their consequences for businesses and citizens in their everyday lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1048437 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Review
This book represents a unique combination of sound scholarship and relevant policy analysis. Researched and written by two leading academics, it informs and stimulates thinking on key issues of economic growth and social equity in the age of the Internet, mobile phones, and electronic services. It covers a broad range of technological, economic, and social issues with a focus on how society actually uses new information technologies. It is essential reading for analysts and policy makers, as well as for anyone wanting to understand the transformation of our technological way of life, and making use of this knowledge for everyday life. (Manuel Castells, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley and author of The Internet Galaxy )

About the Author
Professor Robin Mansell holds the Dixons Chair in New Media and the Internet within the Interdepartmental Programme in Media and Communications (Media@lse), London School of Economics and Political Science.