Informationalism

AbstractInformationalism refers to a technological paradigm that replaces and subsumes the previous paradigm of industrialism (Castells 1996). From metallurgy to transportation, industrialism was marked by a revolution in materials engineering triggered by the Industrial Revolution. Informationalism, on the other hand, is connected with the information revolution that begins after World War II, covering developments associated with computer science and its various expressions in electronics and telecommunication networks. Informationalism manifests itself in the added importance of knowledge, information, and communication in the globalized world where human labor is increasingly involved in the production ofimmaterial goods(Hardt & Negri 2000). However, the rise of informationalism as the new paradigm does not suggest that industrialism disappears as a material fact; it only suggests that industrialism loses centrality in discourses of technology; indeed, informationalism subsumes and transforms industrial technologies from within. For example, the automobile, an important industrial artifact, does not become less important; it retains its role and appearance while undergoing an informational transformation whereby the automobile becomes an assemblage of computers and data‐communication networks that begin to mediate its basic functions, including acceleration, breaking, and steering.