ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the research into information and information and communications technologies (ICTs) in relation to three spheres: Sociology, Cultural Studies and History. The notion of the information society has wide currency inside Sociology and, indeed, far beyond the discipline's borders. For most concepts has been a reference point for thinking about the information domain and associated technological innovation. Late in 1978, Prime Minister James Callaghan announced that the British people must 'wake up' to the microelectronics revolution. The message was that an enormously significant technological breakthrough had been made and it was set to sweep away all in its path. Things changed with the publication of Manuel Castells's The Information Age between 1996 and 1998. The Information Age was distinctively ambitious in its endeavour to account for the major patterns of contemporary civilization, but it was also the work of a self-described and determinedly 'empirical sociologist' who wore his theoretical clothes lightly.
