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How to understand digital culture: Digital culture - a resource for a knowledge society?
How to understand digital culture:
Digital culture - a resource for a knowledge society?
Aleksandra Uzelac
Today’s society is marked by the fast development of communication and
information resources and is thus often referred to as an information age. So in the last
few decades we have branded our society with all kinds of different names –
information society, knowledge society, networked society – thus emphasizing the
importance that information and communication structures have in our daily lives.
The extent of the changes in our present society is reflected in the claims about the
information “revolution”, rather than “evolution”, that is taking place and affecting
these changes. The terms “information society”, “networked society” or “knowledge
society” are political terms that do not have precisely defined meanings. They can
mean different things to different people. 1 These terms can imply more information,
more communication infrastructure, more profit for the business sector or the
emancipation of people in our society. They mostly reflect the deterministic view that
1 An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, and
manipulation of information is a significant economic, political and cultural activity. Kahn
and Kellner define an information society as “a dynamic and complex space in which
people can construct and experiment with identity, culture and social practices” (Kahn and
Kellner, 2008: 23). According to Castells (1996) a network society is a society where the
key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed
information networks. Broadly speaking, the term “knowledge society” refers to any
society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labour.
The term “knowledge society” originates from works of Peter Drucker, Robin Mansell and
Nico Stehr. UNESCO (2005) has introduced the term “knowledge societies” (plural
emphasizing acceptance of diversity element) to put emphasis on the importance of
knowledge as a shared resource and the importance of promoting new forms of solidarity,
as well as to emphasize the difference in concept - information society being based on
technological breakthroughs; knowledge societies encompassing much broader social,
ethical and political dimensions.
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