Welcome to Information Technology and Society

Week 4

 

Here's the wiki with course material: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage.

 

 

In this class we'll focus on how the information technology revolution developed, especially vis-a-vis long time Berkeley Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society, as well as http://webnographers.org - a wiki bibliography on virtual ethnography.

 

I invite your questions, and I'll post a version of the text from each class to http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage over the weeks.

There's already a lot of information on this wiki, which will develop with this class.

 

And please join the Google Group for World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School.

 

 

 

So about Information Technology and Society:

 

We've covered, mostly, history and actors so far.

 

But I'd like to go further with these

 

to look at the link between the INFORMATION REVOLUTION and SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS.

 

Information Technology is important because a new kind of society has already emerged.

 

What was the social context in which the Information Technology Revolution helped to transform the 1970s society into a new society?

 

There were a number of processes that interacted in the Information Revolution formation.

 

1 Information Technologies themselves - so MICROELECTRONICS, COMPUTERS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

 

2 a kind of Socioeconomic Restructuring in the U.S. of capitalism - a kind of periestroika "exactly," and

 

3 a change in the values as a result of social movements and alternative cultures - the mess of the 1960s - so 3 is Cultural Change

 

 

(Peresroika, here, was an opening - political and economic reforms  - in Russia, that was transforming in the 80s - and such an opening occurred in the 60s in the U.S.)

 

 

The result came from a combination of all 3 processes interacting.

 

And in today's talk, I hope to engage this more analytically, building on previous classes' descriptions.

 

So, technology doesn't come first to shape society, in my analysis.

 

But, also, society doesn't create technology, either.

 

It's the interaction of these three above processes that is what led to this revolution.

 

So these three processes came together at history in the 1970s by ACCIDENT.

 

These events were not predetermined, or technologically determined.

 

Instead, their interaction is what's significant.

 

Again, these 3 factors - mostly in the U.S. and the West - are

 

1. Information Revolution,

2 Economic restructuring, and

3. Culture Change - the 'mess of the 60s'

 

and it's the interaction that leads to our society which is "The Network Society."

 

This is the argument of this course, drawing on Prof. Manuel Castell's resarch and trilogy "The Rise of the Network Society."

 

By these 3 processes interacting - bumping together -

 

NEW FORMS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION EMERGE

 

 - a kind of socioeconomic restructuring of the capitalist system, in this case.

 

And this restructuring happened at the same time as 'perestroika' happened in the communist system.

 

So a combination of 1 the effects of information technology 2 socioeconomic restructuring and 3 culture change (60s) leads to the emergence of the NETWORK SOCIETY.

 

What is the process of socio-economic restructuring?

 

It involves changing the rules of the game, without changing the game.

 

To clarify: Social systems are organized around Means and Goals

 

When a system goes into crisis, some people who want to change the goals are called revolutionaries, and what occurs are revolutions.

 

When a system goes into crisis and you don't want to change the goals, you change the means.

 

And in the 1970s in the U.S. and the West (including Communist Russia) there was quite a substantial crisis, like the 1930s, which was bigger and it was characterized by huge inflation.

 

At one point, the system couldn't operate, and inflation become too high, and companies couldn't calculate the cost of borrowing monies. Prices were high, too.

 

In the 1970s, strategies and policies from companies and governments, to set goals in order.

 

And this RESTRUCTURING worked - within the existing goals of the system.

 

In a parallel situation, the socialist system, the "statist" system, with the state is at the center - not markets, - the state tried restructuring and decomposed.

This happened in Russia, and China changed to socialism under capitalism ... which were mechanisms that challenged the system.

 

So, the ECONOMY is organized in a system around money-making -

by companies, private businesses, especially through investment.

No money-making, no hiring.

 

How do you make money out of business?

There are 4 ways.

 

1 Increasing productivity

- how much output you generate per unit of input

If you make 10 pairs of shoes for sale, their vlaue should be more than the costs

The output needs to be more valuable than the input

For this process of increasing productivity, you need

brains, technology and organization

Without PROFIT, there is NO ECONOMY

And PRODUCTIVITY is the bottom line

The second thing you need is

 

2 More efficient management

and the third key way to make money out of business is with

 

3 lower costs - i.e. the product's price stays the same, with less resources

i.e. same aount of leather, chemicals and all in the shoe example, but for cheap costs - so, less to labor, - less than what one charges,

and lower environmental costs, and all of this has to do with

the POWER of Management over Labor

And the fourth way you make money out of BUSINESS is

 

4 by EXPANDING MARKETS

with more consumers per unity of what one sells, so the product can be cheaper.

... because you have the advantage of volume.

... with which to make money.

 

What happened in the mid 1970s, in the U.S. and the world, is that companies and governments proceeded in ways that, all together,

 

increased productivity, increased efficiency of management, lowered costs, and expanded markets

 

How did they do this?

 

Through 4 mechanisms.

 

1 Much better information technology

 

2 FLEXIBILITY in magagement, work, distribution systems and in capital markets

 

This flexibility was largely connected to introducing new forms based on NETWORKING rather than VERTICAL organization.

And this occurred, particularly, through RAPID Feedback loops between management and workers.

Lower costs occurred due to relative low costs of computing and microelectronics and telecommunications, themselves.

Also, if one can extract more work from employees, more work for less money, more money for computers and less for workers, there's a change in the POWER relationship between

 

3 Management and Labor

 

And this was reflected in the dramatic decline in UNIONIZATION

 

In the late 1950s, about 34% of the work force in the U.S. was unionized

 

IN the 2000, that number had declined to about 13.5%

and in the private sector, it was at around 9%

And in FINANCE and HIGH TECH, unionized labor was at less than 2%

And What happened in the mid 1970s, in the U.S. and the world, is that companies and governments proceeded in ways that, all together,

more influence by

 

4 the MEDIA and GLOBALIZATION

Globalization includes myth, ideology, politics and an historical process over the last 80 years.

With GLOBALIZATION money could circulate in GLOBAL MARKETS around the world.

Concerning assembly lines, COMPANIES could invest now in a globalized world

in favorable markets.

And companies can SELL EVERYWHERE

but this is an unqual process

For example, HIGH TECH sells in India

but Indian textiles don't sell as well in the U.S.

And in the 1970s, MARKETS expanded dramatically

And this lowered the cost of production relative to price.

Companies were always looking for most favorable conditions.

 

 

And INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY is critical for

 

1 Networking and Networks

 

2 Globalization

 

These 2 new conditions wouldn't exist without information technology.

But fast computing and telecommuncations are needed for both.

from all stops to all stops

Without advanced information systems, you couldn't have dense networks of AIR transport

on which the global economy is based.

AIR TRANSPORTATION is dependent on information technology.

for CARGO shipping

and CONTAINERS

where the system doesn't tolerate miscalculations

 

It's avery complicated global network based on very precise systems.

 

About CULTURAL CHANGE

This involves new ideas & new forms of civil life

Many of the things taken for granted

would have caused tremendous problems 30 years ago

And much of this started with, for example, FREE SPEECH in Berkeley in 1964.

and the STUDENT MOVEMENT in PARIS in May 68

 

And this happend IN ALL western capitals.

 

What happened?

 

There were Diverse PROTESTS

 

What was important was the FREEDOM of the Person, vis-a-vis the SYSTEM

It was somtimes selfish

there was the sentiment, for example, that "Nobody is going to give me orders."

And this BLEW UP an entire system of authority on which all societies are based.

The sheer number of ideas that emerged changed the way society thinks.

And something deeper also happend.

 

These PEOPLE moved into INSTITUTIONS

and these people became VOTERS.

 

How fundamental was the change?

 

Well, for one, Women as equals is NOW the standard.

And two, ENVIRONMENTALLY, there was a newly learned respect for the BALANCE OF NATURE where people, as part of this CULTURAL CHANGE, informing the Information Revolution

begain to think about the use of the car

and the idea that "pollution is a problem" emerged

as well as the idea of the "ozone layer"

These were previously unthinkable!

and thirdly, the idea of INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

emerged significantly

where "I want to develop my own thing" became widespread, in a way which wasn't

previously thinkable.

And the LIBERTARIAN quality now became DENATURED ... broken down or distilled

via the PERSONAL COMPUTER idea

which came from a cultural idea that said

"I want something for me" ... and this

became INDIVIDUAL SOFTWARE - what a radical concept

 

(As an aside, check out this GREAT, free SOFTWARE at the open, free World University & School -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software. WORLD UNIV & SCH is like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware - so open and free in all alngauges, nation states subjects and at all levels. Societal processes can be compelling, so keeping World Univ & Sch open and free and where people - you and I - can teach about anything is important - WILD even - and in conjunction with degree granting over time).

 

 

So the idea of INDIVIDUAL KNOWLEDGE came from a culture

which valued INDIVIDUALISM as a supreme value.

And these CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS happend in 3 - 4 years

from 1968-1972.

 

So these three factors -

 

1 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

2 ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING and

3 CULTURAL CHANGE

 

all interacted and resulted in the NETWORK SOCIETY

 

 

SOCIAL OUTCOME

 

An analysis of history, culture and the uses of technology that SYMBOLIZES this transition is the INTERNET.

We'll look at economic dimension sof the internet and the WWW later

And the INTERNET makes the the transition between this INFORMATION REVOLUTION which I've been characterizing and NOW.

 

 

So, we'll begin next to look at the SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET next time ...

 

http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/FrontPage