Any examination of contemporary society must recognize a central place for information and communication processes and for the technologies and institutions on which they rely, particularly for public communication. The essays in this volume juxtapose two central concepts of recent social and political thought – civil society and information society – and relate them to the complex nature of contemporary public communication. A number of authors, including several contributors to this collection, argue that as we progress into the twenty-first century, civil society is beginning to disintegrate everywhere. In this volume, fifteen scholars from ten different countries address that argument by problematizing the relation between the older concept, civil society, and the newer one, information society, and offering perspectives on future directions.Individual essays examine specific and controversial issues related to global informatization that are of great relevance to contemporary discussions on global political and economic reconstructing. Focusing on the implications of "revolutionary" information technology for civil society. The contributors critique and reject popular and often narrow conceptions of the consequences of information technology and the development of information economy. The question of whether technology and democracy can and must coexist is one we face as a species. Taken together, these essays illustrate some of the critical stakes emerging as we come to understand the threats and opportunities for free and democratic communication in a global civil society.
