ABSTRACT
We are on the threshold of a ‘communications revolution,’ an ‘information society,’ a ‘technetronic age,’ a ‘post-industrialist society,’ a ‘knowledge-based economy,’ ( . . . ) All of these phrases refer endlessly to the conviction, now rampant amongst aca demics, politicians, and journalists alike, that some fundamentally revolutionary change is occurring in our society and that inform ation and/or communication (the two not always being distin guished) is at the root of it. The deployment and development of what is called ‘new communications technology,’ more specifically of electronic equipment for linking computers and telecommunic ations systems into networks, is seen to be at the foundation of this new society. These declarations are also always accompanied by numerous futurist declarations concerning the inevitable social impacts of this change: the ‘end of ideology,’ the ‘third wave,’ ‘disemployment,’ ‘bio-genetic hybrid populations,’ an ‘age of leisure,’ a ‘return to feudal-style cottage industry,’ and so on.
