Key Thinkers for the Information Society provides an introduction to some important social theorists whose work has considerable relevance to today's 'brave new world' of information and communication technologies. With the aim of widening current perspectives on the information society, each contributor introduces a particular theorist and discusses the way in which their insights can be reintroduced into debates regarding the social, political and cultural impact of ICTs. Theorists presented in Volume 1 include some well-known and some less well-known figures: Walter Benjamin; Murray Edeleman; Jacques Ellul; Harold Innes; Lewis Mumford; Karl Polanyi; Eric Elmer Scattachneider and Raymond Williams. Each has something fresh and pertinent to say and taken as a whole this volume provides an exciting new resource for contemporary studies.

Key Thinkers for the Information Society provides an introduction to some important social theorists whose work has considerable relevance to today's 'brave new world' of information and communication technologies. With the aim of widening current perspectives on the information society, each contributor introduces a particular theorist and discusses the way in which their insights can be reintroduced into debates regarding the social, political and cultural impact of ICTs. Theorists presented in Volume 1 include some well-known and some less well-known figures: Walter Benjamin; Murray Edeleman; Jacques Ellul; Harold Innes; Lewis Mumford; Karl Polanyi; Eric Elmer Scattachneider and Raymond Williams. Each has something fresh and pertinent to say and taken as a whole this volume provides an exciting new resource for contemporary studies.

In the first edition of Theories of the Information Society Frank Webster set out to make sense of the information explosion, taking a sceptical look at what thinkers mean when they refer to the information society, and critically examining all the major post-war theories and approaches to informational development.

There has been much debate over the idea of 'the information society'. Some thinkers have argued that information is becoming the key ordering principle in society, whereas others suggest that the rise of information has been overstated. Whatever the case, it cannot be denied that 'informization' has produced vast changes in advanced societies. The Information Society Reader pulls together the main contributions to this debate from some of the key figures in the field. Major topics addressed include: * post-industrialism * surveillance * transformations * the network society * democracy * digital divisions * virtual relations. With a comprehensive introduction from Frank Webster, selections from Manuel Castells, Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault and Christopher Lasch amongst others, and section introductions contextualising the readings, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and academics studying contemporary society and all things cyber.

Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation is generally acclaimed as being among the most influential works of economic history in the twentieth century, and remains as vital in the current historical conjuncture as it was in his own. In its critique of nineteenth-century ‘market fundamentalism’ it reads as a warning to our own neoliberal age, and is widely touted as a prophetic guidebook for those who aspire to understand the causes and dynamics of global economic turbulence at the end of the 2000s. Karl Polanyi: The Limits of the Market is the first comprehensive introduction to Polanyi’s ideas and legacy. It assesses not only the texts for which he is famous – prepared during his spells in American academia – but also his journalistic articles written in his first exile in Vienna, and lectures and pamphlets from his second exile, in Britain. It provides a detailed critical analysis of The Great Transformation, but also surveys Polanyi’s seminal writings in economic anthropology, the economic history of ancient and archaic societies, and political and economic theory. Its primary source base includes interviews with Polanyi’s daughter, Kari Polanyi-Levitt, as well as the entire compass of his own published and unpublished writings in English and German. This engaging and accessible introduction to Polanyi’s thinking will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, providing a refreshing perspective on the roots of our current economic crisis.

Key Thinkers on Cities provides an engaging introduction to the dynamic intellectual field of urban studies. It profiles the work of 40 innovative thinkers who represent the broad reach of contemporary urban scholarship and whose ideas have shaped the way cities around the world are understood, researched, debated and acted upon. Providing a synoptic overview that spans a wide range of academic and professional disciplines, theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, the entry for each key thinker comprises: A succinct introduction and overview Intellectual biography and research focus An explication of key ideas Contributions to urban studies The book offers a fresh look at well-known thinkers who have been foundational to urban scholarship, including Jane Jacobs, Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells and David Harvey. It also incorporates those who have helped to bring a concern for cities to more widespread audiences, such as Jan Gehl, Mike Davis and Enrique Peñalosa. Notably, the book also includes a range of thinkers who have more recently begun to shape the study of cities through engagements with art, architecture, computer modelling, ethnography, public health, post-colonial theory and more. With an introduction that provides a mapping of the current transdisciplinary field, and individual entries by those currently involved in cutting edge urban research in the Global North and South, this book promises to be an essential text for anyone interested in the study of cities and urban life. It will be of use to those in the fields of anthropology, economics, geography, sociology and urban planning.

There is a clear need for a systematic, integrative, and rigorous normative theory of the information society. In this book, Duff offers a prescriptive theory to help to guide the academic and policy communities as they debate the future shape of emerging post-industrial, information-based societies. He argues that information policy needs to become anchored in a left-liberal philosophy which foregrounds a feasible permutation of the core ideals of freedom, equality and brotherhood. The information society, if it is to be worth having at all, cannot be allowed to be largely the outcome of the free play of market forces and technological determinism. The social structure, including the information economy, must be subjected to a regulatory axiological system as explicated by some leading proponents of social democracy. This text will be of interest to scholars and students at the cutting edge of information studies, journalism and media, computer science, sociology, politics, philosophy, management and law.