Working‐class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have‐less in Urban China

Citation

de Kock, M. (2010), "Working‐class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have‐less in Urban China", Online Information Review, Vol. 34 No. 6, pp. 990-991. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011099513

This book joins a wealth of online resources about the evolving working class network society in China. Networks have no boundaries; consequently, the network society is a global network society. The author describes a more complex social and technological reality in a newly mobile, urbanising China and argues that, as inexpensive internet and mobile phone services become available and are closely integrated with the everyday work and life of low‐income communities, they provide a critical seedbed for the emergence of a new working class of “network labour” crucial to China's economic boom. Between the haves and have‐nots, writes Qiu, are the information “have‐less”: migrants, laid‐off workers, micro‐entrepreneurs, retirees, youth and others, increasingly connected by cyber‐cafés, prepaid service and used mobile phones.

The research that supports the writing of this book is based on empirical evidence collected from 2002 to 2008. Qiu brings class back into the scholarly discussion, not as a secondary factor but as an essential dimension in our understanding of communication technology as it is shaped in the vast, industrialising society of China. Basing his analysis on more than five years of empirical research conducted in 20 cities, Qiu examines technology and class, networked connectivity and public policy, in the context of massive urban reforms that affect the new working class disproportionately. The transformation of Chinese society, writes Qiu, is emblematic of the new techno‐social reality emerging in much of the global South.

One of the observations made about the information have‐less is the condition that those among this arena are, on balance, more likely to lack social power than market position. The evolving information society in China will continue to depend on the use of ICTs and their informational potential. This is one of the outstanding conditions of the contemporary global era, and one of the central challenges to the future of state‐society relations in China.

This book should be of interest to those studying the development and impact of technology, the information revolution and historians interested in global political science and its impact. It can be purchased for academic, research, technology, special and public libraries.