Information society
A society in which creating, processing, and distributing information are central to economic activity, social organization, and everyday life.
Information and communication technology: Technologies used to create, store, process, and communicate information. These technologies provide the infrastructure through which information moves across society.
Daniel Bell: An American sociologist known for analyzing postindustrial society and the growth of service work. Bell's account of postindustrial change helped frame information as a basis of social transformation.
Surveillance capitalism: An economic system that extracts personal data to predict and influence behavior for profit. Commercial data extraction is one consequence of making information a primary economic resource.
Industrial society: A society whose economy and social organization center on mechanized manufacturing and industrial production. Its factory-centered organization provides the historical contrast for information-centered change.
Knowledge economy: An economy in which knowledge and information are major sources of value and productivity. It describes how information-centered activity reshapes production and employment.
The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: Daniel Bell's 1973 book describing the shift toward services, knowledge, and professional occupations. This influential work supplied an early framework for understanding information-centered economies.
Digital labor: Work performed through or for digital systems, including content production and data generation. Everyday online activity can produce value and data without resembling conventional employment.
Post-Fordism: A flexible system of production associated with diversified markets, subcontracting, and adaptable labor. It explains economic restructuring without treating information as the sole defining feature.
Digital divide: The unequal access to, use of, or benefit from digital technologies and networks. Unequal access determines who can participate fully in information-centered life.
Yoneji Masuda: A Japanese sociologist who developed influential visions of an information society. Masuda linked computer networks to changes in social organization and human life.