Hello, thx for your appreciation and question Let me clarify what I meant by saying that the term "digital society" is "theoretically disembedded". As I see it> When compared to its use during 70s and 80s, the semantic field of the original term "information society" transformed during 90s. There were many other terms (and respective authors) fighting for their place in the sun of understanding what society are we heading to - postindustrial and digital being the main competitors when taking seriously technology development as a part of/element in macro-social change. However, "postindustrial" was understood as a thing of the past (even Bell jumped out of the train) and "digital" had no strong author in academia to fight for it (Negroponte? tss..). It was Manuel Castells and his influential work (both textually and institutionally) that brought the term "information society" to the top of political agendas and professional disputes (see his citation index and influence). So, according to me, in the nineties, the term "digital society" had its meaning partly fixed in the debates about the appropriateness of the term "information society" and because the term "information society" won the race, something like "digital society" have got disembedded from being theoretically rooted - free to use for anyone willing to pick it up (in spite of the fact Manuel Castells' using of the term frequently in Communication Power 2009 - but with no reasoning). At least I do not see any author creating theoretical framework for the term and defending it against other terms :) I hope I explained understandably why I used the term and I hope that the discussion will pick up the thread of my first question and not this answer Excuse my weak English, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Petr Lupac M.A. Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague Celetná 20, Praha 1, 116 42, the Czech Republic Tel> (00420)736163866 e-mail> petr.lupac--at--gmail.com Office hours Mo 12:30-14:00, Celetná 20, room nr. 114, or by appointment. -----Original Message----- From: Charles Ess [mailto:charles.ess@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 2:20 PM To: Petr Lupac; Air list Subject: Re: [Air-L] digital society instead of info soc? great questions, and i'll be eager to see responses - but can't resist commenting on: On 3/19/11 12:36 PM, "Petr Lupac" <petr.lupac@gmail.com> wrote:

Or is it just using the new, theoretically disembedded term so they can defend themselves by broad scope of interpretation possibilities?

Both as a cynic (in the popular sense) and something of a philosopher - is there such a thing as a theoretically disembedded term? I'm not trying to be snide here - but just genuinely curious. Thanks! - charles ess Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab Helsingforsgade 14 8200 Aarhus N. Denmark mail: <imvce@hum.au.dk> tel: (+45) 8942 9250 Professor, Philosophy and Religion Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23

Petr, Having been on the edge of similar discussions for the last few years (I've been on the IGF / OECD / Council of Europe policy circuit) the conscious decision process is probably at once trivial and complex. It is my guess that with the change in role of commissioner Reading there was a lot of discussion about the nature of the agenda. I imagine also that the notion of 'digital' seemed more 'now' as policy makers are often desperate to give the impression that they are in touch with what is going on 'on the street'. Loaded into this each stakeholder would have read into 'information' and 'digital' all kinds of values that they felt represented their position and the position that they wanted to project for the EU for the future. I know this is very meta but the details are probably now lost as much of the detailed work of actors in influencing such positions tends to occur in un-documented meetings in corridors and bars. Sorry if this is a ridiculously simple analysis that blindingly obvious. What I can say from first had is most intergovernmental policy meetings that I've attended are excruciatingly boring :) ren On 19 Mar 2011, at 12:36, Petr Lupac wrote:

Hello,

I am teaching Information Policy course and writing dissertation thesis on the sociotechnical construction of information society - and I got into interesting question:

what stands behind EU information policy moving from information society concept in iEurope initiatives (2000-2010) to digital society concept in Digital Agenda for Europe (2010-2020)?

Does anyone here have a clue? Is that because original information-society-based iEurope project went pretty unsuccesfull compared to its original goals so they need a new term? Or can it be that the European Comittee wants to move away from using the terms loaded by academic disputes? Or is it just using the new, theoretically disembedded term so they can defend themselves by broad scope of interpretation possibilities? Or is there a new theoretical tradition working with the term "digital society" which Eu is refering to implicitly and I haven't noticed yet?

Any answer helsping me answer would be pretty welcome :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Petr Lupac M.A. Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague Celetná 20, Prague 1, 116 42, the Czech Republic

e-mail> petr.lupac--at--gmail.com

Office hours Mo 12:30-14:00, Celetná 20, room nr. 114, or by appointment.

_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

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Just a reminder, Castells himself as said that "information society" is a misleading term, he has insisted on the term "network society", which I think is closer to a conceptualization of a "digital society", taking into consideration that without digital media, network society is practically not possible. And let me get this clear, I am not defending all that Castells says. Rafael Alarcon Autonomous University of Puebla-Mexico --- El sáb 19-mar-11, Denise N. Rall <denrall@yahoo.com> escribió: De: Denise N. Rall <denrall@yahoo.com> Asunto: Re: [Air-L] digital society instead of info soc? A: air-l@listserv.aoir.org, "Ren Reynolds" <ren@aldermangroup.com> Fecha: sábado, 19 de marzo de 2011, 16:46 Yes - (very good discussion) The Information Society, despite Manuel Castells upgrade, still recalls Al Gore's Information Superhighway. It could be argued that the majority of internet traffic today has to do with social networking, entertainment, shopping, and game playing. Perhaps not as information-driven as the internet was designed to be :-) Denise Denise N. Rall, PhD. Exhibiting with the Lismore Embroiders' Guild Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina, NSW, 12 March-04 April 2011 Lismore NSW AUSTRALIA Mobile +(61)(0)438 233344 Fax +(61)(0)2 6624 5380 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/ --- On Sun, 20/3/11, Ren Reynolds <ren@aldermangroup.com> wrote:       _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/