Information Society Watch

2001, Sally Wyatt, Flis Henwood, Nod Miller and Peter Senker, Routledge

This piece explores the diverse implications of the new information and communication technologies through case studies of their applications in three main areas - media, education and training, and work. Questions of access to, and control over, crucial resources such as information, knowledge, skills and income are addressed, drawing upon insights from science and technology studies, innovation theory, sociological and cultural studies. Some of the key issues addressed include: democracy and broadcasting technologies; gender, class and ethnicity in technological education and lifelong learning; class, gender and skills in the workplace; and the global economic inequalities associated with technological innovation. All of the chapters question the meanings of the terms 'technology' and 'inequality' and of the widespread association of technology with progress. Contributors to this book develop a critique of the information society by addressing questions of equality and inequality in ways that combine structural analysis with an analysis of individual and collective agency. Written with a non-specialist readership in mind, all complex theories and key concepts are carefully explained making the book easily accessible and relevant to a wide range of actors. (Review)

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