Towards a Normative Theory of the Information Society

信息社会研究已经成为一个重要的跨学科研究领域，《信息社会：国际期刊》和较新的英国期刊《信息、传播与社会》的成功都说明了这一点。这方面的书籍也不断涌现，包括克莉丝汀·博格曼的《从古腾堡到全球信息基础设施：网络世界中的信息获取》（2003年）、曼努埃尔·卡斯特的《信息时代：经济、社会和文化》（3卷）（1996- 1998年，已经出版了第二版）、迪尔恩利和费瑟的《有线世界》（2001年）、斯科特·莱什的《信息批判》（2002年）、沙利尼·文图雷利的《欧洲媒体自由化》：《政治、监管和公共领域》（1998），《弗兰克·韦伯斯特的信息社会理论》（2002），以及我自己的《信息社会研究》（2000）。在这些题目所代表的国际学术辩论中，人们日益认识到需要更明确的规范性和规定性著作，特别是那些深深植根于对哲学和政策以及新闻或传播研究的正确理解的著作。我的书试图做出这样的贡献。它旨在反映一种以宗教社会民主主义理想为基础的独特方法，探索如何将r·h·托尼等思想家的思想“应用”于信息时代及其随之而来的问题。希望这本书能激发人们对一些重要问题的讨论，比如规范的来源、信息政策的哲学论证、社会工程的合法性，以及包括图书馆和媒体在内的信息机构在发展一个公正的信息社会中应该扮演的角色。这本书主要被认为是一个理论和解释性的工作，其研究方法将相应的那些人文学者：精读，记笔记，反思和写作，借鉴了几个主要的大学和研究型图书馆在苏格兰中央地带的资源。为了详细分析诸如新闻的社会分发和信息自由立法的影响等整体问题，这些图书馆的官方出版物部分将是至关重要的。作者还计划接近一些著名的思想家，包括尤尔根·哈贝马斯和曼努埃尔·卡斯特，希望与他们进入持续的学术通信。当然，这是一种在人文学科中历史悠久的“研究方法”。《迈向信息社会的规范理论》将试图满足几个理论和实践群体的明确需求，即：专门研究信息社会的通信、媒体、社会学和信息科学学者；决策者及其顾问寻求根据信息社会的发展做出基于知识的信息决策。本书的目的是通过在《信息社会》、《信息、传播与社会》和《媒体、文化与社会》等主要期刊上传播章节的版本来补充这本书。这些成熟的媒体的受众是国际性的，跨越了人文学科和其他学科。本书将要建立的一些工作已经在这些期刊上发表，这表明确实需要更全面的处理。这本书的出版也可能促使其他学者提出他们自己的信息社会规范理论。

Information society studies has emerged as an important field of interdisciplinary research, illustrated by the success of The Information Society: An International Journal, and the newer British-based refereed journal Information, Communication & Society. There has also been a continuous stream of books, including Christine Borgman's From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World (2003), Manuel Castells's The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, 3 vols (1996-98, and already in second edition), Dearnley and Feather's The Wired World (2001), Scott Lash's Critique of Information (2002), Shalini Venturelli's Liberalizing the European Media: Politics, Regulation, and the Public Sphere (1998), Frank Webster's Theories of the Information Society (2002), and my own Information Society Studies (2000).There is a growing recognition in the international scholarly debate represented by these titles of a need for more explicitly normative, prescriptive works, especially ones that are deeply rooted in competent understandings of philosophy and policy, as well as information or communication studies. My book would seek to make such a contribution. It intends to reflect one distinctive approach anchored in religious social-democratic ideals, exploring how the ideas of thinkers like R. H. Tawney can be 'applied' to the information age and its attendant problems. It is hoped that this book would stimulate debate around important issues such as the sources of norms, the philosophical justification of information policies, the legitimacy of social engineering, and the role that information institutions, including libraries and the press, should be playing in the development of a just information society. The book is conceived of primarily as a theoretical and interpretative work, whose research methods will accordingly be those of the humanities scholar: intensive reading, note-taking, reflection, and writing, drawing upon the resources of several major university and research libraries in the Central Belt of Scotland. For detailed analyses of integral issues such as the social distribution of news and the impact of freedom of information legislation, the Official Publications sections of these libraries will be crucial. The author also plans to approach some eminent thinkers, including Jurgen Habermas and Manuel Castells, with the hope of entering into sustained scholarly correspondence with them. Such is, of course, a time-honoured 'research method' in the humanities.Towards a Normative Theory of the Information Society would attempt to meet identifiable needs of several communities of theory and practice, namely: communications, media, sociology, and information science scholars specialising in the information society; and policy-makers and their advisors seeking to make knowledge-based information policy decisions in light of information society developments. It is intended that the book would be supplemented by dissemination of versions of chapters in leading journals, such as The Information Society, Information, Communication & Society, and Media, Culture & Society. The audiences for these well-established outlets are international and span disciplines throughout the humanities and beyond. Some of the work upon which the book will build has already been published in these journals, indicating that there is a real need for a more comprehensive treatment. The publication of this book might also spur other scholars to produce their own normative theories of the information society.