Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China

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Jack Linchuan Qiu (Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Manuel Castells (Professor of Communication and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California)

Working-Class Network Society

Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China

Jack Linchuan Qiu (Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Manuel Castells (Professor of Communication and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California), Carolyn Cartier

$115

Paperback

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MIT Press
19 September 2023

Communication studies; Impact of science & technology on society; Ethical & social aspects of computing

Series: Information Revolution and Global Politics

"An examination of how the availability of low-end information and communication technology has provided a basis for the emergence of a working-class network society in China.

An examination of how the availability of low-end information and communication technology has provided a basis for the emergence of a working-class network society in China.

The idea of the ""digital divide,"" the great social division between information haves and have-nots, has dominated policy debates and scholarly analysis since the 1990s. In Working-Class Network Society, Jack Linchuan Qiu describes a more complex social and technological reality in a newly mobile, urbanizing China. Qiu 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 labor"" 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 cybercafes, prepaid service, and used mobile phones. A process of class formation has begun that has important implications for working-class network society in China and beyond. 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, industrializing society of China. Basing his analysis on his more than five years of empirical research conducted in twenty 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 technosocial reality emerging in much of the Global South."

By: Jack Linchuan Qiu (Assistant Professor The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Afterword by: Carolyn Cartier
Foreword by: Manuel Castells (Professor of Communication and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society University of Southern California)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780262549318
ISBN 10: 026254931X
Series: Information Revolution and Global Politics
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 19 September 2023
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jack Linchuan Qiu is Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a coauthor (with Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez-Ard vol, and Araba Sey) of Mobile Communication and Society- A Global Perspective (MIT Press, 2006). Manuel Castells is Professor of Communication and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, as well as Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, Research Professor at the Open University of Catalonia, and Marvin and Joanne Grossman Distinguished Visiting Professor of Technology and Society at MIT. He is the author of, among other books, the three-volume work The Information Age- Economy, Society, and Culture.

Reviews for Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China

[A] fascinating picture of a hitherto almost unknown phenomenon.--Jens Damm, The China Journal--

PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY

Working-Class Network Society

Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China

Jack Linchuan Qiu (Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Manuel Castells (Professor of Communication and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California), Carolyn Cartier

$115

Paperback

Reviews for Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China

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