Theories of the Information and Post-industrial Society

David M. Berry

The concept of what might broadly be termed the informational society has a number of fascinating theoretical elaborations, each emerging from distinct intellectual and disciplinary tradition. In this post (adapted from a table I created for my undergraduate students), I've attempted to provide is a map of this complex terrain, showing the various conceptual frameworks that have sought to capture the socio-technical transformations of the late 20th Century and into the 21st. I reproduce these tables which are meant to give a sense of alternative ways in which digital changes have been theorised – however they are not intended to be comprehensive, and indeed there are many others who have used similar historical eras to provide a sense of the changes. 

It is useful to conceptualise these tables as overlapping waves with different intensities across regions. For example, while "information society" discourse could be said to have peaked academically in the 1980s-late 90s, it still remains influential in policy circles. Similarly, "platform society" doesn't simply replace "network society" but rather should be seen to intensify and transform certain aspects of it. These frameworks also have distinct geographical origins and applications that should be acknowledged. For example, Japanese theorists like Masuda developed early information society concepts with state support whereas European approaches often emphasise social democratic, welfare state and cultural policy. In contrast, North American frameworks frequently focus on entrepreneurship and individual innovation in the economy and Global South scholars have articulated alternative developmental pathways that are different to Western notions of an information society. 

We might also consider the way in which the increase in digitalisation and computation is understood by different theorists. For example, some accounts are celebratory and emphasise emancipatory potential, efficiency gains, and democratic possibilities from digital technology. Whereas others might be more critical and focus instead on surveillance, inequality, commodification, and environmental concerns. 

In Table 1, I attempt to trace the genealogy of information society concepts across different theoretical traditions. What becomes apparent is the shifting emphasis from early post-industrial formulations (Bell) concerned primarily with service sector expansion and knowledge work, through network-centric approaches (Castells) focused on connectivity and flows, to more recent computational and algorithmic conceptualisations (Berry, Zuboff) that foreground the material-discursive power of code, data and platforms.

Concept	Theorists	Key Works	Field
Information Society	Fritz Machlup, Daniel Bell, Yoneji Masuda	Machlup The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States (1962) Bell The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973) Masuda The Information Society as Post-Industrial Society (1980) Webster Theories of the Information Society (2014)  Castells The Rise of the Network Society (1996)	Sociology, Economics, Communications Studies
Post-Industrial Society	Daniel Bell, Alain Touraine	Bell The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973) Touraine The Post-Industrial Society (1971) Kumar From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society (2005)	Sociology, Political Economy
Network Society	Manuel Castells, Jan van Dijk	Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (1996) van Dijk, The Network Society (1991) Castells, Networks of Outrage and Hope (2012) and Communication Power (2009)	Sociology, Communications Studies, Media Studies
Post-Fordist Society	Alain Lipietz, Michael Piore, Charles Sabel, David Harvey	Piore & Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide (1984) Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (1989) Jessop, The Future of the Capitalist State (2002)	Economic Geography, Political Economy, Labour Studies
Knowledge Society	Peter Drucker, Nico Stehr	Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity (1969) Stehr, Knowledge Societies (1994) UNESCO World Reports on Knowledge Societies (2005)	Management Studies, Sociology of Knowledge
Computational Society	David M. Berry, Luciano Floridi	Berry, The Philosophy of Software (2011) and  Critical Theory and the Digital (2014) Floridi, The Fourth Revolution (2014) Berry & Dieter, Postdigital Aesthetics (2015)	Digital Humanities, Philosophy of Information, Software Studies
Algorithmic Society	Tarleton Gillespie, Frank Pasquale, Shoshana Zuboff	Pasquale, New Laws of Robotics (2020) Seaver, Computing Taste (2022) Zuboff, (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Berry, Synthetic Media	Science & Technology Studies, Media Studies, Law
Platform Society	José van Dijck, Nick Srnicek	van Dijck, The Culture of Connectivity (2013) Srnicek, Platform Capitalism (2016) van Dijck et al, The Platform Society (2018)	Media Studies, Internet Studies, Political Economy
Digital Society	William H. Dutton, Jan A.G.M. van Dijk	Dutton, Society on the Line (1999) Lupton, Digital Sociology (2015) Miller & Horst, Digital Anthropology (2020) Marres, Digital Sociology (2017)	Sociology, Anthropology, Media Studies

Table 1: Informational Society Concepts

Table 2 attempts to situate these informational frameworks within broader epochal narratives, demonstrating how they are articulated within theoretical traditions. This reveals how informational society concepts variously function as extension, rupture or reconfiguration of prior theoretical frameworks. For example as "late capitalism" in Marxist accounts, as "hyperreality" in postmodernist frameworks, or as "technical exteriorisation" in posthumanist thought.

Epochal Framework	Key Periods	Major Theorists	Disciplinary Approach	Relation to Information Society
Materialist-Historical	Feudalism → Capitalism → Communism	Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Louis Althusser, Antonio Gramsci	Historical Materialism, Political Economy	Information society as late capitalism (Herbert Schiller, Dan Schiller), cognitive capitalism (Yann Moulier Boutang), immaterial labour (Maurizio Lazzarato, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri)
Medium Theory	Agricultural Age → Industrial Age → Information Age	Marshall McLuhan, Harold Innis, Neil Postman, Lewis Mumford Friedrich Kittler	Medium Theory, Technology Studies	Information technology as driving force, the "medium is the message", technological revolution (Castells)
Post-Modernist	Modernity → Post-Modernity	Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, Zygmunt Bauman	Cultural Theory, Philosophy	Information society as simulation, hyperreality (Baudrillard), condition of knowledge (Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition), Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Jameson)
Long Wave Economic	Kondratieff waves; Industrial Revolutions (1st → 5th)	Joseph Schumpeter, Carlota Perez, Christopher Freeman, Nikolai Kondratieff	Evolutionary Economics, Innovation Studies	Information society as fifth technological revolution, ICT as techno-economic paradigm (Perez), creative destruction (Schumpeter)
Liberal-Progressive	Traditional → Modern → Postmodern → Cosmopolitan	Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, Jürgen Habermas	Sociology, Social Theory	Information society as reflexive modernisation (Giddens, Beck, Lash), Risk Society (Beck), colonisation of lifeworld by system (Habermas)
World-Systems	Core-Periphery Relations Hegemonic Cycles	Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi, Saskia Sassen	Global Political Economy, International Relations	Information society as manifestation of global capitalism, informational capitalism reinforcing global inequalities, the network state (Castells)
Surveillance-Control	Society of Sovereignty → Disciplinary Society → Society of Control	Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben	Philosophy, Critical Theory	Information society as enabling continuous control (Deleuze), surveillant assemblage (Haggerty & Ericson), biopolitical production (Hardt & Negri)
Ecological-Posthuman	Anthropocene → Capitalocene → Neganthropocene → Chthulucene	Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Bernard Stiegler	Science & Technology Studies, Environmental Humanities	Information society as technosphere, entanglement of human/non-human, technical exteriorisation (Stiegler), anthropocene computing (Gabrys)

Table 2: Epochal Histories

What's particularly interesting is how the temporality of these frameworks has compressed in more recent accounts. Where earlier concepts like "post-industrial society" projected decades-long transformations, contemporary notions like the "platform society" and "algorithmic governance" attempt to theorise changes occurring at accelerated tempos, reflecting the intensification of computational processes and their impacts on social life.

** Headline image generated using DALL-E 3 in March 2025. The prompt used was: "A hyper-realistic oil painting captures eight diverse individuals deeply focused on their electronic devices in a public space, set against a subtle, textured background. Each figure’s attire, accessories, and gadgets are intricately rendered, demonstrating the detail of modern society’s digital engagement, with each subject framed in a distinct, harmonious composition." Due to the probabilistic way in which these images are generated, future images generated using this prompt are unlikely to be the same as this version. 

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Berry, D. M. (2011) The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan.

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