Information Research Weblog

There's a very interesting article in the February 2005 Le Monde Diplomatique, entitled "Why the World Went Mobile" by Dan Schiller.

Faithful to the style of this newspaper, it looks at the social context of wireless technology: why has it arisen and why is it so important to our age, what are the social problems and issues with this technology, and what are the structural weaknesses in the way we have implemented it.

The article is available on the website for subscribers only. I bought a print copy of the newspaper at my local newsagent here in the UK. It says the original article is in English and that Dan Schiller is professor at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and author of a book entitled "Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market Systems" (MIT Press, 2000).

Here is the article teaser: "The demand for the mobile telephone is not a mechanical outcome of technical progress, but the product of the balance of forces that shape society. It is an attempt to wrest a measure of personal control in a social world out of control".

It is definitely food for thought.