Towards a Normative Theory of the Information Society

信息社会研究已经成为跨学科研究的一个重要领域，《信息社会：一本国际期刊》和较新的英国参考期刊《信息，传播与社会》的成功就是例证。书也源源不断，包括克里斯蒂娜·博格曼的《从古登堡到全球信息基础设施：网络世界中的信息获取》(2003)，曼努埃尔·卡斯特尔斯的《信息时代：经济、社会和文化》，3卷(1996-98，已出版第二版)，迪恩利和费瑟的《有线世界》(2001)，斯科特·拉什的《信息批判》(2002)，沙里尼·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)，和我自己的信息社会研究(2000)。在这些书名所代表的国际学术辩论中，越来越多的人认识到需要更明确的规范性、规范性的著作，特别是那些深深植根于对哲学和政策以及信息或传播学的称职理解的著作。我的书将寻求做出这样的贡献。它打算反映一种植根于宗教社会民主理想的独特方法，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。希望这本书能引起关于诸如规范的来源、信息政策的哲学合理性、社会工程的合法性以及包括图书馆和新闻媒体在内的信息机构在发展公正的信息社会中应发挥的作用等重要问题的辩论。这本书主要被认为是一本理论和解释性著作，其研究方法将相应地与人文学者的研究方法相同：精读、笔记、反思和写作，利用苏格兰中央地带几所主要大学和研究图书馆的资源。对于新闻的社会传播和信息自由立法的影响等整体问题的详细分析，这些图书馆的官方出版物部门将是至关重要的。作者还计划接触一些著名的思想家，包括于尔根·哈贝马斯和曼努埃尔·卡斯特尔斯，希望与他们进行持续的学术通信。当然，这是一种在人文科学中由来已久的“研究方法”。未来，信息社会的规范性理论将试图满足几个理论和实践团体的可识别的需求，即：专门研究信息社会的通信、媒体、社会学和信息科学学者；以及寻求根据信息社会的发展做出以知识为基础的信息决策的政策制定者和他们的顾问。这本书的目的是通过传播《信息社会》、《信息、传播与社会》和《媒体、文化与社会》等主要期刊的章节版本来补充这本书。这些久负盛名的媒体的受众是国际化的，跨越了整个人文学科和其他学科。这本书将以此为基础的一些工作已经在这些期刊上发表，表明确实需要更全面的处理。这本书的出版也可能会促使其他学者提出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.