Disorder And The Disinformation Society: The Social Dynamics Of Information, Networks And Software

Description

This book is the first general social analysis that seriously considers the daily experience of information disruption and software failure within contemporary Western society. Through an investigation of informationalism, defined as a contemporary form of capitalism, it describes the social processes producing informational disorder. While most social theory sees disorder as secondary, pathological or uninteresting, this book takes disordering processes as central to social life. The book engages with theories of information society which privilege information order, offering a strong counterpoint centred on "disinformation." Disorder and the Disinformation Society offers a practical agenda, arguing that difficulties in producing software are both inherent to the process of developing software and in the social dynamics of informationalism. It outlines the dynamics of software failure as they impinge on of information workers and on daily life, explores why computerized finance has become inherently self-disruptive, asks how digital enclosure and intellectual property create conflicts over cultural creativity and disrupt informational accuracy and scholarship, and reveals how social media can extend, but also distort, the development of social movements. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 Introduction: Information Society and Disorder......Page 10 1 Disorder and Social Theory......Page 16 2 Robustness and Order in Theories of the Information Society......Page 42 3 Computers, Systems, Instability and Failure......Page 51 4 Networks, Disorder, Unpredictability......Page 67 5 Disorders of Information......Page 86 6 Capitalism and Disinformation......Page 107 7 Software Development......Page 122 8 Software Disorder and Everyday Life......Page 145 9 Finance, Crisis and Informationalism......Page 168 10 Disorders of the Commons, Peer-to-Peer......Page 186 11 Information-Disorder in Academia......Page 209 12 Communication Technology and the Origins of Global Justice Movements......Page 231 Conclusion: Disinformation Society......Page 255 Bibliography......Page 264 Index......Page 306