Az irányítás mint az információs társadalom motorja

Beniger nagyszerű 1986-os, The Control Revolution című könyvének záró, s egyben összegző fejezete az információfeldolgozás, a kommunikáció és az irányítás központi jelentőségére irányítja rá a figyelmet. Úgy véli, hogy a társadalomtudósok az információval kapcsolatos alapvető fogalmak segítségével tisztázhatják a társadalom szerveződésével és a társadalmi folyamatokkal kapcsolatos, még mindig nagyrészt rendszerezetlen ismereteinket. Az információs társadalom kialakulását - a társadalmi viselkedés szinte valamennyi aspektusát tekintve – minden eddigi leírásnál ill. magyarázatnál jobban értelmezhetjük az irányítás rendszereiben végbemenő ciklikus változásokkal

Towards a Sociology of the EU: The Relationship between Socio-economic Status and Ethnicity and Young People’s European Knowledge, Attitudes and Identities

This article explores the relationship between social backgrounds—socio-economic status and ethnicity—and European knowledge, identities and attitudes to European Union (EU) membership in two member states—the Eastern European newcomer Bulgaria and the Western European notoriously Eurosceptic United Kingdom. Itadopts an empirical sociological approach in line with recent calls for more sociological input into EU studies. By drawing on 174 individual interviews with 9-/10-year-old primary school pupils, the article is focused on young people: a group that ‘holds the key’ to the future of the EU, yet is entirely neglected by academics and policy makers. The findings suggest that despite the substantial national differences, the significance of socio-economic status and ethnicity is strong cross-nationally. European identity is largely elite and racialized and those at the margins of society in my sample are not at all involved in the European project. A key theoretical contribution this article makes is to move beyond mono-causal explanations by providing an account of the intersection of national context, socio-economic status and ethnicity in relation to young people’s European identities

The British Army, information management and the First World War revolution in military affairs

Information Management (IM) – the systematic ordering, processing and channelling of information within organisations – forms a critical component of modern military command and control systems. As a subject of scholarly enquiry, however, the history of military IM has been relatively poorly served. Employing new and under-utilised archival sources, this article takes the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of the First World War as its case study and assesses the extent to which its IM system contributed to the emergence of the modern battlefield in 1918. It argues that the demands of fighting a modern war resulted in a general, but not universal, improvement in the BEF’s IM techniques, which in turn laid the groundwork, albeit in embryonic form, for the IM systems of modern armies. KEY WORDS: British Army, Information Management, First World War, Revolution in Military Affairs, Adaptatio

The life and times of the information society

The assessment of scholarly literature on the Information Society provided in this paper sets out and distinguishes between the analytical foundations of mainstream and critical contributions from a selection of disciplines and fields with a view to considering why there is so little reciprocal engagement among them, and whether there are new opportunities to promote a dialogue with those who hold the power to establish policies and investment practices with regard to information and communication technologies. Based on a review of hundreds of works, it is argued that a broader range of analytical frameworks needs to be considered if today's policies and strategies in this area are not to perpetuate inequality and injustice. In particular, we need to acknowledge that a plurality of visions of future information societies exists, embracing potentially conflicting values and priorities. More emphasis needs to be given to analytical approaches that privilege human well-being and inclusivity