[Air-L] development of the information society concept

[Petr Lupac]

Sandra, 

thank you for your reply, I know about the Japanese origins of the term from
Duff's texts but your tip would be helpful as well and I am looking forward
to read it. However, my question was pointed more to the logic behind EU
switching terms - whether the reason was rather political top-down,
academy-driven, any-other-actor-network-involved, or rather "accidental"
result of complex negotiation process as Ren pointed out in this discussion.
And - the most importantly - I am asking to better understand the social
forces/factors behind the Digital Agenda for Europe information policy.

Nevertheless, the connotations of the term Joho Shakai were different from
the connotations of the term information society both in its American and
French [Nora & Mink] version during 70's and 80's. The result could be seen
in the different problem definitions, different definiton of what the term
"information" refers to, different role-of-the-state and research traditions
developed in these different contexts. It was no sooner that in the 90s when
these differences start to converge in the social practice and academic
research - if I am correct. These infos are based partly on my own research
focused on meaning differences and transformation of the term IS (compare
e.g., Nora and Mink, Bell in the late 70s, Marc Porat, and Yoneji Masuda),
and on the work of Alistair Duff (the book Theories of Information Society
and respective articles).  

Thank you all for stimulating and interesting replies


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Petr Lupac M.A.
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
Celetná 20, Praha 1, 116 42, the Czech Republic 

e-mail> petr.lupac--at--gmail.com

Office hours Mo 12:30-14:00, Celetná 20, room nr. 114, or by appointment.




-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Sandra Braman
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2011 1:18 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] development of the information society concept

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
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