An Introduction to the Information Age: Analysis

In this chapter, the Writer analyzes the dynamics of the “network society” – an emerging, dominant social structure that he finds characteristic of information capitalism around the world.
He focuses on the identification and analysis of main features of the network society, highlighting the profound difference in impact that Information capitalism continues to have on civilization, cultures, as well as on world history compared with the impact of Industrial capitalism.
While I appreciate the analysis and reasoning put forward by the Writer for most part, I bring out alternative views on some of the aspects below:
The writer argues that the informational and global economies (supported at the core by advances in information technology and global information networks), are evermore exclusionary in nature. These economies are characterized by an extremely uneven geography in their endeavor to “optimize” linkages between valuable inputs, markets, and individuals – thereby switching-off the unskilled worker and poor communities. He introduces the notion of a cross-geographic “Fourth World” of exclusion. The forth world consisting of predominantly unskilled, deprived communities not only in Africa and rural Asia, but also including communities in places such as Latin American shanties and South Bronx.
In my opinion, while the phenomenal growth of the information economy has exerted a great deal of pressure on societies and individuals to “re-tool” themselves, opportunities for poorer and unskilled communities have not necessarily diminished in “most” geographical regions.
As enterprises go global, in their pursuit to maximize “value” they establish global linkages, transfer knowledge, build capacity, and expand operations if viable. This gives regions, countries, and local institutions opportunities to leverage their competitive advantage whether in raw material, finished products, or services, to lure investment. There are plenty of examples from India to the middle-east, and beyond, where this has led to the creation of high-performance business hubs. That means, increased demand for building/improving infrastructure, higher demand for skilled and unskilled workforce, higher wages, more money in the local economy, more demand for local products and services, more money to fund public sector improvement projects, improved living standards, and better education that leads to the necessary re-tooling. The process, therefore, continues iteratively, over a period of time.
Why are some countries able to take advantage of the globalization phenomena while other aren’t? This is a more complex question, and has a lot do to with the prevailing “internal” stability of the county, governance issues, and the state of the economy in general. Globalization, however, should act as a motivator for such countries to improve their internal state of affairs, and develop capabilities in “some” industry areas in order to attract foreign investment.
The exclusion problem, however, will unfortunately have a negative (but temporary) impact on unskilled workforce in the technology advanced countries. This could lead to worker anxiety and even more serious problems for individuals and communities. However, these countries typically have the resources to initiate mid-to-long-term projects that can help retool effected communities.
Another revolutionary aspect associated with the network society is the role of media, and how it has influenced cultures, and vice-e-versa.
The Writer talks about the culture of “real virtuality”. In the network society, cultural expressions are increasingly shaped by electronic media. Media are extraordinarily diverse, increasingly inclusive, and bridging from one to another – from network TV to cable, to radio, musical video, to walkman. Media is also fast becoming more interactive. There is increasing interaction by and among individuals that break up the uniformity of mass audience.
Global media of all kinds has certainly been instrumental in helping communities and cultures become more “aware” and collaborative. It has opened up enormous learning opportunities for communities outside the group of more advanced nations. Who could have thought 20 years ago that a person sitting in a remote town somewhere in Africa or the Asian sub-continent will have access to advanced course material at MIT via MIT’s web-based open courseware project. Who could have thought a few years back that a person sitting in an ordinary college in somewhere in Bangladesh would be interacting with leading academicians around the world via video conferencing.
The transition from TV to the Internet and now cell-phones with multi-media content has led to an explosion in information sharing anytime, and almost anywhere.
To conclude, the Information Age and its impact on the way the world works today, is phenomenal – something that the world is still in the process of understanding