Review Essay: Critical European Perspectives on the Information Society

, edited by Jan Servaes. Bristol, UK: Intel-lect, 2003. 260 pp., $39.95 paper. ISBN 1-84150-106-9.Although there always have been critical and skepti-cal voices in the (academic) debates on the emergenceof a radically “new” information society (Schement L Webster, 1995; Calabrese & Burgelman,1999), those voices were not listened to, disregarded, orneglected altogether. Instead, the coming of the informa-tion society was heralded and propagated by (most) aca-demics, governments, and corporate actors alike as havingrevolutionaryeffectsonalmosteveryaspectoflife—work,leisure,politics,capitalisteconomy,welfare,andsoon.Assuch, the technologies that facilitate the real-time distribu-tion of information and supposedly allow us to communi-cate more, more quickly, and more cheaply; form part ofnewly construed myths in support of the dominant “sus-tainablegrowth”and“revolutionist”paradigmincapitalistdiscourses. Within these so-called boom visions, technol-ogy is sacralized, and the machine becomes a god, capa-ble of any- and everything, and above all unquestionable(Kubicek et al., 1997). Such techno-optimistic discoursesdefend the idea that technology as such is neutral and thatthe rapid spread of information and communication tech-nologies (ICTs) in society will cause a social, economic,and political transformation of society that will be posi-tive and progressive by default. Authors challenging thesedeterministic assumptions were often labeled as diehardpessimists or doom thinkers.However, when the so-called “new economy/dot.com”bubbleburst,moreskepticalvoicesinthedebatesurround-ing the emergence of an information society suddenlygained more respectability. Some economic—as well asstate—actors even started adopting a more cautious dis-course. On the economic side, the collapse of the “new”economy and the failure of e-commerce, especially inEurope, showed that “old” business—and especiallyfinancial—practices, as well as long-standing economiclaws, were still relevant and valid (Lennon, 2000). Onthe policy side, discourses also shifted gradually fromblatantly technologically deterministic to a more shadedperspective, taking social contexts and divides into ac-count (HLGIS, 1994; HLEG, 1997; European Commis-sion, 2001). Nevertheless, we can still observe a ratherclassic continuum in the debate concerning the role ofICTs in society, going from radical discontinuity to the-ses of (accelerated) continuity, and it is fair to say thatthe dominant discourse is still firmly situated within thediscontinuity paradigm.The three books under review all take a critical stance,opposing these dominant discourses, but within those crit-ical perspectives different positions emerge. The skepticalview that Christopher May (2002) defends with strong ar-guments is clearly situated on the continuity end of thecontinuum revolution/evolution. One by one he rejects themost common revolutionary assumptions with regard tothe impact of ICTs on society. The first relates to the moregeneralclaimthatanewagehasarrived,whichwill(orhas)seriously alter(ed) our societies—economically, socially,culturally,andpolitically.Thethreeotherclaimsareallre-lated to this more general assumption, namely, that of thenew economy, information politics, and the decline of thestate. In terms of the new economy, May concludes thatmuchhaschangedandischanging,butthattheseshiftsareembedded in a history of technological innovation and a(hyper)capitalistlogic.Havingdealtwiththemoregeneralclaimofanewera,Mayproceedsbycriticizingtherhetoricthat claims the new economy is capable of inducing new