Information Society: A Second "Great Transformation"?

Abstract

To understand from a perspective of Political Economy what is going on in the so-called information society we should identify and understand the new kind of goods and services that are produced, distributed and consumed via digital information and communication technologies (DICT). To perform this task we go back to the basics: Let us start with the notion of "useful things". Useful things have many attributes, and we can therefore use them in many ways. The usefulness of a thing makes it a use-value, because by its intrinsic characteristics it can satisfy some human need, either real or imaginary, maybe positive or negative for anybody. Although elementary, the concept of a useful thing is not trivial, because the notion of usefulness is rather tricky. This notion in fact re?ects the complex cobweb of the society in question. What is useful in one society can become useless in another one or vice versa, therefore even a use-value does not represent an invariant over time. However, there is more to be told: Already Aristotle stated that beyond the use-value of an object there is another kind of value, exchange-value, which marks the de?nition of a commodity up to now: "The one (i.e. use-value P.F.) is peculiar to the object as such, the other (i.e. exchangevalue P.F.) is not, as a sandal which may be worn, and is also exchangeable. Both are uses of the sandal, for even he who exchanges the sandal for the money or food he is in want of, makes use of the sandal as a sandal. But not in its natural way. For it has not been made for the sake of being exchanged.