Literature

Encounters with the Information Society

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Extract from James Stewart, 2002 “Encounters with the Information Society”,

Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This research arises from a background of technology studies, especially the idea of

the social shaping of technology (SST) (Williams and Edge, 1996). SST places the

analysis of technology in a social environment, and also asks that we understand all

social relationships in the context of the material and technical world, which

permeates the cultural and social. A particular area of technologies studies that

inspired this research looks at media communication and information technologies in

the home, and this was the basis of the research questions and design. However

during the course of the five year study a great deal of literature from outside this

discipline was brought in: from cultural studies, consumer research, diffusion of

innovation research, leisure studies, urban and community sociology and many more.

I also took part in other parallel studies that covered similar issues, bringing in new

insights to research questions. This chapter introduces some of this literature, its

theories and findings in a way that will inform the reading of the empirical work

presented in the following chapters. This review was written after the field study and

analysis, so the comment and development of the ideas is not only a reflection on the

literature, but also on insights from the study.

2.2 Engaging with the Information Society1

The new arrival of multimedia technologies including the Internet, mobile and

telephony services, and their various applications are part of a revolution similar

those that occurred at earlier innovative periods that saw the development of stream

power, antibiotics, electricity, radio and television, the internal combustion engine,

and the telephone. These established technologies all appear to have provoked

considerable...