[Air-L] development of the information society concept

[Sandra Braman]

Petr, the history of the information society concept begins many decades earlier than you have placed it.  The concept first appeared in Japan in the early 1960s when the notion of an information society -- joho shakai -- was introduced by a scholar.  (The first book using the phrase in its title was in 1968, when Yoneji Masuda published INTRODUCTION TO AN INFORMATION SOCIETY.)

The concept was then widely publicized in the Japanese mass media, and taken up vigorously by the Japanese government with an aggressive funding program to support the development of new information technologies, the uses of those technologies, and study the effects of those uses.  It was AFTER the concept appeared in Japan that Daniel Bell's work introduced the concept to the English language world (though I believe he independently reached the notion).  Subsequently, the concept was taken up in a wide variety of ways by scholars across disciplines and by governments for a variety of purposes, but to be accurate the story begins in the early 1960s.

(I've a piece from the mid-1990s that documents some of this story and has citations that will lead you onward, if that's helpful -- Harmonization of systems, in the JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION.)

Sandra Braman