Information, Policy, and Power in the Informational State - Chapter 9 of Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power
First Monday
Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power by Sandra Braman


Thanks to MIT Press and Sandra Braman, First Monday is pleased to present an excerpt from Sandra’s latest book Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power. This book examines the implications of the change of the governments from welfare states to informational states. Sandra describes how information policy in areas as diverse as intellectual property, border protection, privacy, and research funding affect issues such as identity, the nature of technological systems, and organizational structures.

The table of contents for Change of State follows with a link to chapter 9, “Information, Policy, and Power in the Informational State.”

More details about this work can be found on the MIT Press Web site at http://mitpress.mit.edu/main/home/default.asp.

Detailed Contents

List of Tables     xv

Preface     xvii

Note on Text     xix

Acknowledgments     xxi

1 An Introduction to Information Policy     1

2 Forms and Phases of Power: The Bias of the Informational State     9

Information     9
Theoretical Pluralism     10
A Taxonomy of Definitions     11
Using the Taxonomy     20
Power     23
The Problematics of Power     24
Forms of Power     25
Phases of Power     27
The State     28
Problematics of the State     29
The Nation     30
The State     32
A Typology of States by Form of Power     35
Information Policy for the Informational State     37

3 Bounding the Domain: Information Policy for the Twenty-First Century     39

The Definitional Problem     40
History     41
Premodern Information Policy     42
Early Modern Information Policy     44
Modern Information Policy     45
The Contemporary Environment     48
International Information Policy     54
Confounding Factors     56
Technology-Based Problems     56
Practice-Based Problems     61
Policy Process-Based Problems     62
Issue Area-Based Problems     66
Definitional Approaches     67
Lists     67
Legacy Legal Categories     68
Industries     68
Social Impact     69
The Information Production Chain     69
Bounding the Domain of Information Policy: An Analytical Approach     73
Step 1. The Policy Issue and the Information Production Chain     74
Step 2. Link Analytically to Related Information Policy Issues     75
Step 3. Examine the Social Impact of Current Policy     76
Step 4. Develop Policy Recommendations     77
Step 5. Translate Recommendations into the Terms of Legacy Law     77
Information Policy: Constitutive and Constitutional     77

4 Constitutional Principles and the Information Spaces They Create     79

The Principles     81
Principles in the Constitution     81
The First Amendment     85
Other Constitutional Amendments     87
The Penumbra of the Constitution     89
Constitutional Information Spaces     89
Public versus Private     90
Spaces Defined by Medium     96
The Spaces of Expression     99
The Spaces of Content     105
The Spaces of Content Production     111
Spaces Defined by Audience     113
Spaces Defined by War and Peace     114
Constitutional Principles and Their Limits     115

5 Information Policy and Identity     117

Identity Theory     117
Individual Identity     121
Libel     121
Privacy     126
Identity of the Informational State     138
The Census and Other Statistics     138
Mapping     144
Official Memory     148
Mediating the Identities of the Individual and the Informational State     155
Citizenship     155
Language     160
Education     162
Mutually Constituted Identities of the Individual and the Informational State     166

6 Information Policy and Structure     167

Theories of Structure     167
Information Policy and Social Structure     173
Antitrust     173
Copyright     177
Patents     187
Association     191
Information Policy and Technological Structure     193
Interconnection     193
Participatory Design     197
Universal Service     199
Information Policy and Informational Structure     205
Access to Government Information     205
Accounting Systems     208
Metadata     215
Information Policy and New Structural Formations     219

7 Information Policy and Borders     221

Border Theory     221
Borders of Social Systems     227
Geopolitical Borders     228
Trade in Services     234
Borders of the Technological System     239
Network Borders     240
Export Controls     244
Informational Borders     248
Political Speech     248
Arms Control Treaties     250
Importing Knowledge Workers     254
Border Rhetoric versus Border Realities     255

8 Information Policy and Change     259

Theories of Change     259
Information Policy and Change in Social Systems     264
Freedom of Speech versus National Security     265
The Vote     274
Information Policy and Change in Technological Systems     278
Direct Funding of Research     281
Tax Credits     287
Procurement     288
Information Policy and Change in Information Systems     293
The Arts     293
Government Dissemination of Information     302
Ambivalence and Inconsistency     310

9 Information, Policy, and Power in the Informational State     313

The Social Impact of Information Policy Trends     314
The Current Status of Constitutional Information Policy Principles     321
The Nature of Information Policy     324
Policy and Social Theory     326
The Future of the Informational State     327

Bibliographic Essays     329

Notes     329

1. An Introduction to Information Policy     329
2. Forms and Phases of Power: The Bias of the Informational State     335
3. Bounding the Domain: Information Policy for the Twenty-first Century     346
4. Constitutional Principles and the Information Spaces They Create     349
5. Information Policy and Identity     352
6. Information Policy and Structure     369
7. Information Policy and Borders     394
8. Information Policy and Change     405

References     419

Index     525

 

Contents Index

Copyright ©2007, First Monday.

Copyright ©2007, Sandra Braman.

Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power by Sandra Braman
First Monday, volume 12, number 4 (April 2007),
URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/braman2/index.html



Bookmark and Share


A Great Cities Initiative of the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library.

© First Monday, 1995-2013.