Power and resistance in the age of informationalization

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1994-05-05
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Virginia Tech
Abstract

In this paper I will examine the ways that power operates and resistance might be possible under political, social, and cultural conditions which are increasingly manufactured and mediated by information technologies. More specifically, I will focus on how the work of Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard might be used to better understand the political problems and potentialities of informationalization. Some of the questions I address here are: What exactly are we speaking of when we call this the "information age?" Has it replaced or merely subsumed the older, industrialized era? What are some of the effects of informationalization on the subject, knowledge, and "reality?" Can Foucault's analytics of power (which describes the birth of the modern era) be extended to the problematic of informational society? Can Baudrillard's acidic descriptions of informationalized consumerism be used for progressive political projects? Finally, I will discuss what the role of the intellectual might be in informationalization. By examining the conditions of informationalization, I hope that we can better understand the theoretical and political implications of Foucault's and Baudrillard's work.

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