Ragnar Karlsson, Hagstofa Íslands

The paper addresses the theoretical substance of the so-called information society thesis and the validity of the statistical indicators that have been produced to confirm the thesis. Albeit consensus between advocates and critics of the information society thesis of increasing ‘informatisation’ of life, the very idea of the information society itself is a contested terrain and a satisfactory definition of the concept is far from well-established. In much of the information statistics there is a pervasive tendency to define information narrowly and to conflate information with technology. Searching for quantitative evidence of information growth, information is usually conceived in non-meaningful way and devoid of its content as sharply distinguished from the semantic concept. In this ‘Informational neo-Darwinism’ centred above all on the emergence of a new type of society which sets it apart from anything that has gone before, it is difficult to distinguish between representation and effect. Almost in tautological terms quantifiable increase in information is thus the very proof of qualitative change and the rise of the information society. Hence it is argued that the idea of the information society is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than a substantiated fact.

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