The information society is frequently presented as an a-historical, ideology-free and apolitical system. However, in actual fact, important questions of political economy underpin the rapid, technology-mediated transformations that we are witnessing today. A consistent and pressing concern throughout all of IT for Change's thematic areas of work consists of unveiling the political economy underpinnings of the information society as we know it, so as to harness the information society phenomenon for the greatest possible benefit of the currently disadvantaged countries, groups and individuals.
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Working actively for new global political systems that are adequate to the needs of an emerging information society is an important and urgent task. The authors discuss the WSIS process and its positive outcomes in terms of Internet governance, and negative outcomes in terms of failure to establish a financing mechanism for ICTD. They also identify the IS as based on a set of three infrastructural elements – connectivity, software and content - which can together be called the IS infrastructure. The authors contend that the need to conceptualise and build the necessary common infrastructures as essential elements of the new playing field is an important social and political task. |
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Anita Gurumurthy presented a paper titled, 'The local-global connection in the information society: Some tentative formulations around gender, development and social change' at a seminar focussing on 'Gender and work in the global context: Theory and practice'. The seminar was conducted by the London School of Economics in May 2007. |
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This paper was written as a contribution for the Athens IGF in 2006 and has been recontextualised and submitted by IT for Change to the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Ministerial Meeting on 'The Future of the Internet Economy', a powerful world event being held on Internet policies in Seoul, Korea in June 2008. The paper discusses the need for a 'development agenda' in Internet governance and comments on issues of democracy and participation in global Internet policy making fora such as the OECD Ministerial meeting and IGF. |
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This piece appeared in 'World Economy and Development', and critiques the Information Technology 'revolution' sweeping through India. There are no conclusive trends to prove if the revenues which the industry claims to have contributed to the contry's GDP, have actually stayed in the country, and investment in IT primarily seems to be restricted to urban areas as major IT companies are unwilling to invest in rural areas. |
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Political Economy of the Information Society