Synopses & Reviews
In
Class Warfare in the Information Age, Michael Perelman reveals how the efforts of business to profit from the sale of information will result in a reduction rather than an increase in access to information. He demonstrates how the treatment of information as a commodity will cause it to be more regulated and less accessible. In the future, Perelman argues, accessing and affording information will still be a class-based privilege, and the rights of individuals will disintegrate as the power of the corporate sector grows.
Class Warfare in the Information Age is a refreshingly critical work that forces readers to rethink the conventional hype surrounding the information superhighway.
Review
“Perelman's wry sense of humor . . . makes this excellent book surprisingly readable and one that deserves to be widely read.” —
Choice“Contends that, for the most part, the information technologies are not being applied to improve the quality of life; rather, they are being used to perfect command and control processes, often at the expense of the well-being of workers.” —Journal of Economic Literature
Synopsis
In Class Warfare in the Information Age, Michael Perelman reveals how the efforts of business to profit from the sale of information will result in a reduction rather than an increase in access to information. He demonstrates how the treatment of information as a commodity will cause it to be more regulated and less accessible. In the future, Perelman argues, accessing and affording information will still be a class-based privilege, and the rights of individuals will disintegrate as the power of the corporate sector grows. Class Warfare in the Information Age is a refreshingly critical work that forces readers to rethink the conventional hype surrounding the information superhighway.
Synopsis
In sharp contrast to the glorious promise of an information age, Perelman reveals how the efforts of business to treat information as a commodity will cause it to be more regulated and less accessible in the future. He argues that the rights of individuals will disintegrate as the power of the corporate sector grows.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [135]-149) and index.
About the Author
Michael Perelman is Professor of Economics at California State University, Chico. His most recent books are
The End of Economics; The Pathology of the US Economy: The Costs of a Low-Wage System; and
The Natural Instability of Markets.
Table of Contents
Modern Class Warfare in the Age of the Information Revolution: An Introduction * A Preview * A Skeptical Reading of the Information Revolution * Classes and the Information Revolution * Information and the Labor Process * The Contradiction of Exploited Informational Labor * Panopticism * Information as a Commodity * Markets and Informational Efficiency * Conclusion: Toward a Real Information Age