Information and Communication Technologies: : Visions and Realities

Citation

Lin, A. (1999), "Information and Communication Technologies: : Visions and Realities", Information Technology & People, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 113-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp.1999.12.1.113.1

This book is a collection of some major findings of the ten‐year Program on Information and Communication Technologies (PICT) which was launched in 1985 by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In editor William Dutton’s words, the book aims to “examine the visions and realities that have already shaped technological change in order to provide practical insights into how the long‐term social and economic implications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be addressed”.

The book chapters are organized around two main headings, “Information economy: making a business of information”; and “Information society: balancing competing values and interests”, each comprising two parts. Under the heading of information economy, various conceptual frameworks related to the future of ICTs, and evidence of utilization of ICTs in organizations, management and work are examined.

Studies in part one (chapters 1‐6) provide different “visions” of production of ICTs in the information economy, with the hope that these visions can help people to “set the goals to which technology and public policies seek to give concrete meaning”. For example, chapter one discusses the relationships between ICTs and changes in employment patterns in information economies; in chapter five, Woolgar uses the metaphor of “technology as a text” to illustrate the pivotal role of social relations between producers and users in determining the success of ICTs.

In part two (chapters 7‐11) empirical evidence is presented to illustrate how social forces such as politics, culture and gender influence the changes in structure and processes, and how geographically distributed firms are reinforced and transformed by ICTs.

Parts three and four focus on consumption and policy issues in the information society. Part three (chapters 12‐16), “Living in an information society: ICTs in the home, education, and democratic processes”, examines different factors that are most likely to influence consumption behaviour of ICTs. Part four (chapters 17‐22), “Public policy and regulation: actors, goals, and strategies”, discusses different aspects of how government should regulate both individual and public consumption behaviour according to national interests.

There is no doubt that technological determinism has dominated sociologists’ interests in technology till other schools of thought such as “social shaping of technology” and “social construction of technology” came along to offer a new perspective. “Technological determinism” proposes that technology plays a constitutive role, which could determine, even cause, the development of social structure and economy. Such a view seems to overlook the fact that social processes or combinations of social and technical innovation mechanisms also bear an impact in the course of observed changes. On the other hand, the “social shaping of technology” and “social construction of technology” paradigms have shifted people’s attention from technological ways of thinking to social‐technical thought of technology. More specifically, they attempt to ground technology in the society and to address the context in which technology is used.

It is not difficult to see that the studies presented in this volume are very much influenced by ideas of “social shaping of technology” and “social construction of technology”. Accordingly, regardless of the ways that the papers are organized, several cross‐cutting concepts and themes can be identified. These are: the limits of technological determinism, the centrality of the user, the cultures of technology; the power of ideas, the bias of emerging technologies, the interactions of local‐global dimensions, and the access to the information society. None of the chapters covers only one concept or theme since ICTs are seldom influenced by a single social force.

The book is written in an open style in order to help a wide variety of readers understand the practical and theoretical implications of ICTs in our society. Such an effort can be seen as a merit as well as a drawback of the book. It is a merit because the handy format can help people lacking a social science background to understand topics in an accessible fashion. However, those who are expecting an in‐depth ICT’s research may find that some discussions are rather simplistic. Moreover, the work setting and the organizational contexts surrounding the use of ICTs in the work place are often lost to some of the generalizations. As a result, readers may believe that all factors and phenomena presented in the book are true to all organizations, societies and economies.

Finally, the term “information and communication technologies” seems to be used in a very loose fashion throughout the book. Such a loose definition of the term may cause confusion and be misleading. For example, in chapter 18, “IT and economic development: international competitiveness”, Kraemer and Dedrick do not spend many words on exploring what “IT investment” means in the context of their research, therefore it is very difficult to picture a full idea of the relationship between IT investment and national outputs, or even nations’ international competitiveness.

As stated above, the book’s major aim is to attract readers’ attention to the social dimension of technologies against the traditional technological determinism school of thought. Consequently, it is not surprising that most papers concentrate on how social forces shape technologies. Even though technological determinism only tells one side of the story, I found that neither “social shaping of technology” nor “social construction of technology” schools tell us a full story of ICTs in the information society/economy. For it is never easy to say whether social forces constitute technology or the other way round. A reason for it is that, in most cases, technology and social forces are interacting with one another, and the boundaries between the two realms become more and more blurred when interactions between these two increase. Hence, it is equally dangerous to emphasize the social dimension of technology only.

In raising important socio‐technical issues on ICTs in relation to the information society and economy, the book certainly represents a valuable contribution to the field, despite the fact that discussions in each paper are not very much in‐depth. In addition, the papers presented in the book highlight some potential research topics that need to be explored with further research. Hence, the book can be seen as a very useful resource for those who are seeking new topics in the field. I would therefore regard this volume as a very good textbook for the study of ICTs from a sociological perspective.