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.

ConceptTheoristsKey WorksField
Information SocietyFritz Machlup, Daniel Bell, Yoneji MasudaSociology, Economics, Communications Studies
Post-Industrial SocietyDaniel Bell, Alain TouraineSociology, Political Economy
Network SocietyManuel Castells, Jan van DijkSociology, Communications Studies, Media Studies
Post-Fordist SocietyAlain Lipietz, Michael Piore, Charles Sabel, David HarveyEconomic Geography, Political Economy, Labour Studies
Knowledge SocietyPeter Drucker, Nico StehrManagement Studies, Sociology of Knowledge
Computational SocietyDavid M. Berry, Luciano FloridiDigital Humanities, Philosophy of Information, Software Studies
Algorithmic SocietyTarleton Gillespie, Frank Pasquale, Shoshana ZuboffScience & Technology Studies, Media Studies, Law
Platform SocietyJosé van Dijck, Nick SrnicekMedia Studies, Internet Studies, Political Economy
Digital SocietyWilliam H. Dutton, Jan A.G.M. van DijkSociology, 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 FrameworkKey PeriodsMajor TheoristsDisciplinary ApproachRelation to Information Society
Materialist-HistoricalFeudalism →
Capitalism →
Communism
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Louis Althusser, Antonio GramsciHistorical Materialism, Political EconomyInformation society as late capitalism (Herbert Schiller, Dan Schiller), cognitive capitalism (Yann Moulier Boutang), immaterial labour (Maurizio Lazzarato, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri)
Medium TheoryAgricultural Age →
Industrial Age →
Information Age
Marshall McLuhan, Harold Innis, Neil Postman, Lewis Mumford
Friedrich Kittler
Medium Theory, Technology StudiesInformation technology as driving force, the "medium is the message", technological revolution (Castells)
Post-ModernistModernity →
Post-Modernity
Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, Zygmunt BaumanCultural Theory, PhilosophyInformation society as simulation, hyperreality (Baudrillard), condition of knowledge (Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition), Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Jameson)
Long Wave EconomicKondratieff waves;
Industrial Revolutions (1st → 5th)
Joseph Schumpeter, Carlota Perez, Christopher Freeman, Nikolai KondratieffEvolutionary Economics, Innovation StudiesInformation society as fifth technological revolution, ICT as techno-economic paradigm (Perez), creative destruction (Schumpeter)
Liberal-ProgressiveTraditional →
Modern →
Postmodern →
Cosmopolitan
Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, Jürgen HabermasSociology, Social TheoryInformation society as reflexive modernisation (Giddens, Beck, Lash), Risk Society (Beck), colonisation of lifeworld by system (Habermas)
World-SystemsCore-Periphery Relations
Hegemonic Cycles
Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi, Saskia SassenGlobal Political Economy, International RelationsInformation society as manifestation of global capitalism, informational capitalism reinforcing global inequalities, the network state (Castells)
Surveillance-ControlSociety of Sovereignty →
Disciplinary Society →
Society of Control
Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio AgambenPhilosophy, Critical TheoryInformation society as enabling continuous control (Deleuze), surveillant assemblage (Haggerty & Ericson), biopolitical production (Hardt & Negri)
Ecological-PosthumanAnthropocene →
Capitalocene →
Neganthropocene →
Chthulucene
Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Bernard StieglerScience & Technology Studies, Environmental HumanitiesInformation 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. 


Selected Bibliography 

Agamben, G. (2005) State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Arrighi, G. (1994) The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times. Verso.

Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press.

Bauman, Z. (2000) Liquid Modernity. Polity Press.

Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Sage Publications.

Bell, D. (1973) The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. Basic Books.

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

Berry, D. M. (2014) Critical Theory and the Digital. Bloomsbury.

Berry, D. M. and Dieter, M. (eds.) (2015) Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation and Design. Palgrave Macmillan.

Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell Publishers.

Castells, M. (2009) Communication Power. Oxford University Press.

Castells, M. (2012) Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Deleuze, G. (1992) Postscript on the Societies of Control, October, 59, pp. 3-7.

Drucker, P. F. (1969) The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society. New York: Harper & Row.

Dutton, W. H. (1999) Society on the Line: Information Politics in the Digital Age. Oxford University Press.

Floridi, L. (2014) The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford University Press.

Foucault, M. (1995) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books.

Gabrys, J. (2016) Program Earth: Environmental Sensing Technology and the Making of a Computational Planet. University of Minnesota Press.

Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Polity Press.

Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action. Beacon Press.

Haggerty, K. D. and Ericson, R. V. (2000) The Surveillant Assemblage' British Journal of Sociology, 51(4), pp. 605-622.

Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2000) Empire. Harvard University Press.

Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2004) Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Penguin Press.

Haraway, D. J. (2016) Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Blackwell.

Innis, H. A. (1951) The Bias of Communication. University of Toronto Press.

Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State. Polity Press.

Kittler, F. (1999) Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Stanford University Press.

Kondratieff, N. D. (1935) The Long Waves in Economic Life, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 17(6), pp. 105-115.

Kumar, K. (2005) From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society: New Theories of the Contemporary World. Blackwell Publishing.

Latour, B. (2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford University Press.

Lazzarato, M. (1996) Immaterial Labor, in Virno, P. and Hardt, M. (eds.) Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics. University of Minnesota Press, pp. 133-147.

Lipietz, A. (1987) Mirages and Miracles: The Crises of Global Fordism. Verso.

Lupton, D. (2015) Digital Sociology. Routledge.

Lyotard, J-F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester University Press.

Machlup, F. (1962) The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. Princeton University Press.

Marres, N. (2017) Digital Sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research. Polity Press.

Masuda, Y. (1980) The Information Society as Post-Industrial Society. World Future Society.

McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill.

Miller, D. and Horst, H. A. (eds.) (2020) Digital Anthropology. Routledge.

Moulier Boutang, Y. (2011) Cognitive Capitalism. Polity Press.

Mumford, L. (1934) Technics and Civilization. Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Pasquale, F. (2015) The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information. Harvard University Press.

Pasquale, F. (2020) New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI. Harvard University Press.

Perez, C. (2002) Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Piore, M. J. and Sabel, C. F. (1984) The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. NeBasic Books.

Plantin, J-C. and Punathambekar, A. (2019) Digital Media Infrastructures: Pipes, Platforms, and Politics, Media, Culture & Society, 41(2), pp. 163-174.

Postman, N. (1992) Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Knopf.

Sassen, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton University Press.

Schiller, D. (1999) Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System. MIT Press.

Schiller, H. I. (1981) Who Knows: Information in the Age of the Fortune 500. Ablex.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1942) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Harper & Brothers.

Seaver, N. (2022) Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation. University of Chicago Press.

Srnicek, N. (2016) Platform Capitalism. Polity Press.

Stehr, N. (1994) Knowledge Societies. Sage Publications.

Stiegler, B. (2018) The Neganthropocene. Open Humanities Press.

Touraine, A. (1971) The Post-Industrial Society: Tomorrow's Social History: Classes, Conflicts and Culture in the Programmed Society. Random House.

UNESCO. (2005) Towards Knowledge Societies: UNESCO World Report. UNESCO.

UNESCO. (2021) UNESCO Science Report: The Race Against Time for Smarter Development. UNESCO.

van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2006) The Network Society: Social Aspects of New Media. Sage Publications.

van Dijck, J. (2013) The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford University Press.

van Dijck, J., Poell, T. and de Waal, M. (2018) The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford University Press.

Wallerstein, I. (1974) The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. Academic Press.

Webster, F. (2014) Theories of the Information Society. Routledge.

Zuboff, S. (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. PublicAffairs.



Comments