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Information Society as a Global Policy Agenda: What Does It Tell Us About the Age of Globalization?

Stanford University, USA, drori{at}stanford.edu

The issue of information society commands worldwide attention: diverse constituencies work at closing the gaps in access to and in use of digital technology. Why are such efforts directed specifically at the issue of the information society? In this article I argue that the redirection of world society's attention towards this issue is related to the correspondence between the dimensions of globalization and those of the field of information and communications technologies. Specifically, I highlight five such shared dimensions: economic transactions, political relations, globality, networks, and world norms. In this way, the theme of information society was quickly defined as a global social problem because it corresponds to the themes of the era of globalization. I also argue that while various realist theories of globalization focus solely on the dimensions of economic and political transactions, world society theory expands on these by highlighting the cultural and institutional dimensions of globalization.

Key Words: global digital divide • globalization • information society • world society

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