Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

NOTES
1
4 Other pertinent thinkers, notably Lester Thurow (1996), Tom Friedman (2005)
and Manuel Castells (1996–8), whom I discuss separately in this book, were also
formulating this new thinking.
5 Network society
1
1 In a 2005 interview Castells clarified thus: ‘I actually ceased to be a Marxist when I
was politically most active, between 1975 and 1979, and involved in the Spanish
political transition . . . I ceased to be a Marxist when I realised that most of the questions
I was interested in could not be understood by using Marxism as I could not
understand, for example, gender, urban social movements . . . I became more political
when I left Marxism. I left the Parisian salons with wonderful categories that had
nothing to do with reality and started relying more on my own observations. . . . I
grew out of Marxism. I am not a Marxist any more. For me class is the least fruitful
way to look at social change nowadays’ (Castells, 2005, p. 137).
1
2
6 Information and the market
1 I use the term to distinguish intellectual work that is influenced by Marxist thinking
in terms of analysis from that which subscribes to the wider political Marxist package.
7 Information and democracy
1
1
1 Scannell (1989) adeptly observes: ‘I prefer to characterise the impact of broadcasting
as enhancing the reasonable, as distinct from the rational, character of daily life in
public and private contexts. In this context, reasonable has the force of mutually
accountable behaviour; that is, if called upon, individuals can offer reasons and
accounts for what they have said or done’ (p. 160).
2 Consider Reith’s ‘final word’ (sic) about the ‘old company’: ‘we realised in the stewardship
vested in us the responsibility of contributing consistently and cumulatively
to the intellectual and moral happiness of the community. We have broadcast
systematically and increasingly good music; we have developed educational courses
for school children and for adults; we have broadcast the Christian religion and
tried to reflect that spirit of commonsense Christian ethics which we believe to be a
necessary component of citizenship and culture. We have endeavoured to exclude
anything that might, directly or indirectly, be harmful. . . . We have tried to found a
tradition of public service, and to dedicate the service of broadcasting to the service
of humanity in its fullest sense’ (Reith, 1949, p. 116).
3 In this discussion I exclude the 800 or so academic libraries in the UK since, servicing
students and researchers, they have significantly different purposes from public
libraries. Nonetheless, there are important overlaps (e.g. co-operation between
libraries across the sectors, accessibility to academic libraries by members of the
public who live in the locality) and a full review would, I think, want to consider
academic libraries as an integral part of the British library infrastructure.
4 Namely, the Bodleian Library (Oxford), Cambridge University Library, the National
Libraries of Scotland and Wales, and the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
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