Technology Discourses in Globalization Debates

Globalization, a key concept in our modern and postmodern discourse, is a highly contentious term that continues to generate endless debates about its form and consequences on our societies. Anthony Giddens (1999) professes that while the term is “not particularly attractive or an elegant one, absolutely no one who wants to understand our prospects and possibilities can ignore it.” While many agree that it denotes the occurrence of social change, there is, however, less agreement what these changes may be and whether they, in effect, represent the transition of one form of society to another (i.e., the industrial to the postindustrial or information society). Nevertheless, the increase in the volume of discourses surrounding the term is significant in illuminating that the increased interdependence of the world can lead to new forms of challenges, concerns, empowerment, and resistance with the symbolic and material exchanges of ideas, products, and services, as well as the formation of social networks (Castells, 1998). Castells (1996, 2000, 2001), in his numerous reflections on the network society, asserts that since the 1980s, a new economy has emerged that is global, information-based, and interconnected. This new form of economy remains capitalist in form but is situated on an informational rather than an industrial form of development; at the core of the informational mode of development are networks contributing to a network society.