Impact of ICT on Modern Socio-Economic World System Theory
Melsome Nelson-Richards
Oswego State University of New York
Justin A. Odulana
Health International Network System
Introduction
When Wallerstein (1976) authored his epic modern world system theory over thirty years ago, he argued that the concept of “a world-system is a social system, one that has boundaries, structures, member groups, rules of legitimation, and coherence. Its life is made up of the conflicting forces which hold it together by tension and tear it apart as each group seeks eternally to remold it to its advantage”, (p.229). Wallerstein postulated that the world system has a life-span over which its characteristics change in some respects and remain stable in others, and defined its structures as being, at different times strong or weak in terms of the internal logic of its functioning. “What characterizes a social system in my view is the fact that life within it is largely self-contained, and that the dynamics of its development are largely internal”, (p.230). Through various empirical analyses, Wallerstein convinced his readers to think of self-containment as a theoretical absolute, a sort of social vacuum, rarely visible and even more implausible to create artificially. He suggested that the size of a world-economy was a function of the state of technology, in particular of the possibilities of transport and communication with their constantly changing phenomenon, which are not always for the better, but none-the-less, forcing the boundaries of a world-economy to be ever fluid.
In this paper we examine the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on our modern socio-economic cultural system, and its integration and intensification into the global political economy.
Background
Since Immanuel Wallerstein introduced his modern world system theory over thirty years ago, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - the set of apparatus of microelectronics, computing and telecommunications with devices of immensurable memory storage, capabilities and speed - have emerged so powerfully that it may very well respond to the notion of technological determinism and, as such opened up more avenues for theoretical and methodological constructs of our present-day socio-economic changes and global political transformation. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2006) described Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as “an increasingly powerful tool for participating in global markets; promoting political accountability; improving the delivery of basic services; and enhancing local development opportunities.” (p.1)
ICT has no doubt precipitated and encouraged discourse of Wallerstein’s original theory of modern world system, and its transformation into a global system. The complex integration and reconstructive intensification of ICT into our modern society poses many theoretical and methodological issues. While rendering vibrancies to many economic regions of the world, the enormous capabilities of ICT has also significantly reduced and weakened the authority of many nations and states. It has changed the configuration of class and class situation, and raised serious questions about the motives of entrepreneurial and political globalization.
Theoretical and Methodological Issues
Within the past thirty years, ICT has been crucial and decisive in the control and expansion of socio-economic world system, and in the escalation of global political economy. Its contribution to these two variables, not only solidifies the world system theory, but also ensures its lifespan into infinity, and provides a structure to the future of the world based on our knowledge of it today. In our attempt to understand the on-going impact of ICT on our present world system, we explore the theoretical and methodological foundations which had provided past guidance in the analysis of modern social changes, social movements, socio-economic cultural system, and global political economy.
Modern Social Changes and Movements
Becker and Boskoff (1966) defined social change as “the intelligible process in which we can discover significant alterations in the structure and functioning of determinate social system”, (p.263), and that the most comprehensive and encompassing source of data for social change are social movements. Tarrow (1994), saw social movements as collective challenges by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interactions with elites, opponents and authorities. Tilly (2004) defined social movements as “a major vehicle for ordinary people’s participation in public politics” (p.3). Kendall (2005) and Langman (2005) distinguished between several types and scopes of social movements.
According to Kendall (2005), the old social movements, which can also be classified as the Traditional Social Movements, existed for most of the 19th century and fought for specific social groups, such as the working class, aristocrats, and the rights of men. Their main objective centered on some materialistic goals such as issues concerning the working class. Langman (2005) identified a new social movement, referred to as the “Inter-networked Social Movements” (p.42) which represent the Non-Traditional Social Movements. These new groups included feminist movements, civil rights movements, environmental movements, free software movements, and the alter-globalization movements. The larger objectives of these new groups, according to Langman, are usually centered on issues that go beyond, but not separate from class struggles. Both movements, however, recognize the complexities of the socio-economic cultural system and the global political economy and both aim to have an impact at the local, regional, national and international levels within the constrains of available ICT of their time. Inability of sophisticated strategic members of a movement to acquire the necessary resources or to mobilize people in order to advance their goals could lead to the creation of alternate organizational structure and the emergence of various free riders, (Kendall (2005).
All social movements have a life cycle that revolves around creation, growth, achievement of successes or failures, and eventual dissolutions, and according to Smelser (1995), all social movements need an initiating event. ICT has provided the necessary enabling tools for the new social movements to generate significant social changes, structures, processes, and procedures, most of which are beyond the control of states and nations, and some of which various segments of societies are able to unearth, observe and participate. The capabilities of ICT, undoubtedly, assisted the inter-networked social movements just as Rosa Parks generated or accelerated the American Civil Rights movement (Brinkley, 2000), and trade union activist, Anna Walentynowicz generated or ignited the Polish Solidarity Movement which eventually toppled a communist regime in Eastern Europe (Ackerman & Duvall, 2000).
While the use of ICT by both traditional and non traditional social movements might have achieved a broad objective of accelerating economic equality, social justice, and cultural awareness worldwide, its integration and intensification into the global political economy by some segments of the inter-networked social movements continually improve the fortune of only a tiny segment of society while impoverishing the lot of the overwhelming majority, and precipitating or perpetuating a divided global system. Such use and misuse had generated what has become material social and cultural changes, which, non-the-less, have major impacts on our current world’s socio-economic system.
As we observe and study some of the outcomes of these integration and intensification, it becomes evident that both the use and the proliferation of new ICT equipments are not only impacting the relationship of interdependence of our cultural heritage, our global socio-economic system but also the world’s political economic system.
ICT and Socio-Economic Cultural System
ICT in its traditional and non traditional usage has also been instrumental in the shaping of the pace and scope of our socio-economic cultural system. It has lead to the commodification of, rather than provision of choice in education. Some segments of the ICT-generated social movements have been forceful in exploiting the ills of global socio-economic cultural system. The objectives and operations of the individuals in those movements are more diverse than the rest of their cohorts. Specifically, these segments consider themselves as the true representatives of globalization. They capitalize on the machinations of global capitalism. Because they are so decentralized and diverse, they bypass corporate managed media, and operate progressive but sinister agendas. They identify themselves and affirm their objectives within the Internet.
ICT has facilitated and expanded the world’s socio-economic system, and made it much easier for humans to shop on the internet, to interact with each others sans face-to-face dialogue, and made it possible for individuals and financial institutions to transfer flow of capital from country to country and from region to region at an extraordinarily fast pace . Through the use of ICT “we have created a global society where economists don’t yet understand the global economy”, says Schwartau (2000, p.4).
ICT has also determined how we go about our daily lives. The mobile iPhone today is multipurpose and thus has made our lives easier, and consequently we can be a lot more productive than previously. Our radios, television sets, cameras, etc. have become digital and we can transmit news and other events instantaneously and simultaneously. The compression of space and time as a result of ICT, makes it possible for web logs and web sites to provide alternate views and news to be disseminated at the same time to influence our perception of our political leaders and political events, (Levinson, 2004).
The modern revolutionary medical breakthroughs are all computer based; wounded soldiers in war fitted with ICT artificial limbs, and medical surgery occurring without the surgeon being present in the operating room with the patient, (Rosen & Hannaford, 2006). ‘Internet junkies,’ as those admitted by the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto are called, has become a real problem. Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) afflicts people who interact more with their PCs than with other human beings. The IAD disorder, according to the Foundation, is characterized by obsessiveness, loss of control, and inability to stop (even if the person understands the dangers), and are classified, not just an addiction but also dependence on computer, (Distance Education Centre, 2002).
Our unquestioned reliance upon technology for the most mundane of tasks reeks nonchalance, arrogance and apathy. The global network consists of computers everywhere moving the money, moving the planes, turning on the power, turning on the water, powering the games, and educating our children, Schwartau (2000).
ICT and Global Political Economy
If the 20th century was one of continuation and extension of the 19th century as marked by the industrial revolution, high-powered manufacturing and services, the 21st century can be said to have been captured by the dictatorship of technology. The influence, use and power of ICT surpass many traditional roles and controls of governments and defy most rules of order. It is unlike anything humankind has ever experienced. ICT has become the decisive tool in global politics and political economies, and its powers and influences are only restricted by the creativity and genius of its user. It takes on a life of its own, and yet contributed to the generation of new systems of governance and the creations of new regions in some parts of the world. Both traditional and non-traditional social movements have utilized ICT to effect numerous changes in the economic and political landscape of the world.
Its machinations work parallel with the global system and feeds on itself and other entities that have the capacity to perpetuate the system. A brand of computer, for example, becomes obsolete twelve months after its introduction into the market and the society. Shortly afterwards, the ‘obsolete’ brand is reconfigured into a new brand. Consumer in industrialized countries, having become addicted to its use, finds itself eternally ready to learn and readopt the newer capacities and configuration of the new brand, while his counterpart in the less-industrialized nation embraces the obsolete brand with a keen readiness to put it into use. The circles in both nations remain ever unbroken.
Nationality of ICT users is planetary with very few rules and restrictions on who can play. ICT facilitates ease in communications, politics, and commerce while simultaneously stifling and inhibiting the potentials of the marginalized. Because of its independence and autonomy, ICT’s power, when camouflaged as an agent of change is very forceful and uncontrollable. It is a technology that now has a firm grip on society and has become indispensable in the universal economies and politics of most societies.
As example of the pervasive global influence of ICT is reflected in the Coca-Cola Export Corporation in the Philippines joint project with the Foundation for IT Education and Development, a non-profit organization in the country, to operate a project titled ‘ed.venture’ which provides computers and Internet connectivity, training and post-training support services to high schools in the country, (Wikipedia, 2007). By using schools as an entry point to the community, ed.venture and similar projects laid the foundation for greater community participation in the use of ICT as well as in the adoption and consumption of Coca-Cola products by the whole nation. Despite the fact that parents have joined forces with education authorities in developed world to ban soda drinks from vending machines in schools, the joint venture in the Philippines seems to be applauded and consider appropriate for high school kids in developing countries.
Coerver, Pasztor, & Buffington, (2004) documentation of how the Zapatistas Army of National Liberation utilized ICT to defeat the Multilateral Agreement on Trade and Investment (MATT) in the state of Washington, USA, also demonstrated vividly, the remarkable power of ICT. ICT has also been credited as a determinant of the outcome of wars, as was observed in the “shock and awe” war against Iraq and the Balkans war in the former Yugoslavia, both of which were determined by the accuracy of ICT.
Many universities around the world now offer online courses. Sadly and tragically, ICT has also facilitated pornography and the degradation of women as well as advanced the sex trade even among children as reported in Asia, South America and parts of Europe. Danda (2001) warned users of the Internet. “Most people who use the Internet are honest and are using it legitimately, but a tiny fraction of the population does use the Internet for illicit and illegal purposes.” (p.3)
Another element of the deterministic dimension of the global political economy of ICT is in the powers and influences conferred to the willing and able countries to participate in what is now commonly referred to as either ‘e-economy’, or ‘e-commerce’. E-economy/commerce eases and facilitates instantaneous transfer of capital to financial institutions either directly or through transnational corporations to the farthest ends of the world among such countries. By the same token, through the use of ICTs, aliens, migrants, and guest workers, (both documented and undocumented) are able to remit personal monetary allowances to their family members in their native lands of origin. In effect, the currency regulations of the exporting countries, worldwide, through the use of ICT impact and dictate the quality of life and the level of living standards of family members and business partners in other countries. When the Grameen Bank started to avail low interest loans to primary commodity producers in Bangladesh, little did the organizers know that this activity would result in widespread and worldwide micro financing which has changed the lot of the farmers today and in which ICT and the computer have become the main organizing instruments (Bornstein, 2005).
Based on these activities, it becomes rather difficult to avoid the technological determinist component of ICT. It is now global and has spread its tentacles to all walks of life, in every corner of the world. It has become the driving force of our socio-economic, cultural, and political system.
Divergence and Controversies on Integration and Intensification
While it is generally accepted that there has to be the mind and intellect of the human to program, design, configure, and reassess the impact of ICT on modern society, some authors, however, offer different views and argue that ICT or technology in general does not determine or change the forces of society. Mosca (2004) argued that the almighty status we associate with ICT is not warranted. Misa & Roland (1992) toned down the power of technology in effecting change by suggesting that the efficacy of technological determinism is reflected only in the way it is used.
Other theorists argued that society has the capacity to put a break on ICT, since it was, right from the beginning, designed and programmed by humans. Chandler Jr. (1990) chronicled the different effects of technological determinism in the 20th century economies of different communities. ICT effect in America, according to Chandler Jr. was competitive capitalism, in Germany it was cooperative capitalism, and in Britain it was personal capitalism. But the norms can never be outside the control of political and ethical discourse because the rules, regulations, laws and guidelines of capitalism are never too far removed from each other. Mumford (1994) warned against the dangers of “megatechnics.”
The major theoretical and methodological challenges created by the outcomes of the changes in our ICT-controlled world system had sparked interest in new sociological theories and reached the top of the agenda of multilateral organizations. Castells (1997) considered the social changes occasioned by ICT to be crucial for networking and the network society. Urry (2000), Sheller (2005) and Dyer-Withford (1999) all identified the remarkable potentials of ICT on social networking, in the reformulation of social movements, and in the mobilization of the forces that lead to social change.
The United Nations is also working to find new, creative and quick-acting means for spreading the benefits of the ICT revolution and averting the prospect of a two-tiered world information society. According to a UN Task Force Report (2000), projects to boost Internet connectivity and access in some of the poorest countries in the world are being developed to kick-start networking, accelerate the participation of client countries in the global information economy, provide grants, and promote innovative projects on the use of ICTs for economic and social developments.
The involvement of various sociological theorists and the initiatives of multilateral organizations portend further integration and intensification of ICT into our modern world systems not only by invention of more sophisticated electronic apparatus, but also in innovations in the applications and adaptabilities of our current ICTs.
Conclusions/Implications/Recommendations
When Immanuel Wallerstein discussed his world system theory in the 1970s he had two regions in mind: Europe and the West Indies. He examined the trade and financial relations between those regions. As time went on, these relationships have expanded and changed markedly. Political economic relationships which use to dominate societal analyses are, today, fundamentally different from what they used to be. The emergence, influence, extensive availability and future potentials of information communication technology has enriched and enlivened the debates and discussions on world economic and political system theory, and created a new paradigm of global system theory. This new paradigm indeed encompassed both traditional and non-traditional usage of ICT. Invention of the ICT has injected extraordinary speed, transparency, determinism and precision in the computerization and calculation of the vast volume of personal activities, trade, and financial information that is transmitted among countries and regions. Through ICT, capitalism operates in villages, countries and regions alike. It could be safely said that with ICT, there are no more boundaries, structures, rules of legitimation and coherence.
Whenever any aspect of technology has an impact on society, however, the academic community and other groups look for ways to analyze, conceptualize and theorize the situation. Olesen (2005) argues that ICT has “facilitated and strengthened democratic norms and has proved fertile ground for transnational publics in recent decades.” He further pointed out that the internet’s role in the formation of these transnational publics is undisputed (p.429).
Because of the complexity of ICT and its future potentialities, a trans-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary methodology must be developed and employed in many disciplines to include sociology, politics, demography, economics, statistics, political economy, anthropology, economic anthropology, public health, etc., with each one applying its own techniques, disciplines, resources, and procedures, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods of theoretical and empirical assessment to study the future of humanity under the influence of ICT. As we become confronted with the challenges of ICT on a daily basis, we must reflect, continuously, how parallel the mechanism is to the machinations of the human mind and the workings of our global system. Such reflections should lead to a catalogue of the fundamental changes that had emerged in humanity as direct results of our use of ICT; how those changes had imparted socio-economic system, and a futuristic outlook not only on cultural, entrepreneurial, socio-economic and economic politics, but also on population dynamics.
The future influence of ICT on society is an issue not only for academia, but also for governments, businesses, and societies at large and the academic world have an obligation to equip societies with better information and policies that would enable them to understand, join, and benefit from the ICT revolution. As Arthur (2002) pointed out, technology matures and technological possibilities become saturated, moving production to places on the periphery and setting in various types of complacencies. When these happen, opportunities are lost, profits at home and abroad are low, entrepreneurs start scouting for new opportunities, and the world system, as Wallerstein rightly stated, begins to look for another revolution.
References
Ackerman, P. & Duvall, J. (2000). A force more powerful: A century of Nonviolent Conflict. New York, NY: St Martins
Press).
Arthur, B. (2002). “Is The Information Revolution Dead?” ; available from
www.business2.com/articles/mag/print/0,1643,37570,FF.html; accessed 19 September, 2007.
Becker, Howard & Boskoff, Alvin (Eds). (1966). Modern Sociological Theory in Continuity and Change. New York, NY: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston
Bornstein, D. (2005). The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank. New York, NY:Oxford University Press.
Brinkley, D. (2000). Rosa Parks. New York, NY:Viking.
Castells, Manuel. (1996). The Information Age. Economy, Society, and Culture: The Rise of Network Society. Cambridge,
MA:Blackwell Publishers.
Chandler, Alfred Jr. (1990). Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Coerver, D. M., Pasztor, S. B., & Buffington, R. (2004). Mexico: an encyclopedia of contemporary culture and history. Santa
Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
…… (2002). Development Gateway Foundation. (Available from www.developmentgateway.org Accessed 20 September,
2007.
…… (2002). Distance Education Centre at Technical University of Gdansk. The Internet: Its Psychological Effects, available
from http://www.dec.pg.gda.pl/archive/1996-1998/englab/ Internet.html; accessed 20 September, 2007).
Danda, M. (2001). Protect Yourself Online. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press.
Dyer-Withford, N. (1999). Cyber-Marx: Cycles and circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism. Chicago, Ill:University
of Illinois Press.
Kendall, D. (2005). Sociology in Our Times. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth
Klandermas, B. (1992). The Social Construction of Protest and Multiorganizational Fields. In A.D. Morris & C.M. Mueller (Ed.),
Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Langman, Lauren. (2005). From Virtual Public Spheres to Global Justice: A Critical Theory of Internetworked Social Movements. Sociological Theory 23.1: 42-74.
Levinson, P. (2004). Cellphone: the story of the world's most mobile medium and how it has transformed everything! New York,
N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan
Misa, Thomas & Roland, Alex. (1992). Theories of Technical Change: Parameters and Purposes. Science, Technology and
Human Values 17: 3-12, 79-100.
Mosca, Vincent. (2004). The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power and Cyber Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mumford, Lewis. (1994). “The Myth of Machine.” Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism.
Smith, M & Marx, L (Eds.). Cambridge, MA:The MIT Press.
Olesen, Thomas. (2005). International Zapatismo: The Construction of Solidary in the Age of Globalization. UK: Zed
Books.
Rosen, J. & Hannaford, B. (2006). 'Doc at a Distance,' IEEE Spectrum, pp. 34-39, October 2006.
Schwartau, W. (2000). CyberShock. New York, NY:Thunder’s Mouth Press.
Sheller, Mimi. (2005). The Mechanism of Mobility and Liquidity: Rethinking the Movement in Social Movement. Quoted in
Langman. L., From Virtual Public Spheres to Global Justice: A Critical Theory of Internetworked Social Movements.
Sociological Theory 23.1: 42-74.
Smelser, N. J. (1995). Sociology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Tarrow, S. (1994). Power in Movement: Collective Action, Social Movements and Politics. Cambridge:Cambridge University
Press.
Tilly, C. (2004). Social Movements, 1768-2004. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
UNDP. (2006). ICT4D-Information Communication Technology for Development. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from
“http://www.un.org.kh/undp/ict4dtoolkit/ICT4D.htm”
UN ICT (2007). Information and communication technologies are creating a new global information society—from which four
billion of the world’s people currently are excluded” UN ICT Task Force Report. Available from
www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/itforum/icttaskforce.htm.
Urry, John. (2000). Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century. London: Routledge.
Wallerstein, I. (1976). The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy
in the Sixteenth Century. New York, NY: Academic Press.
Wikipedia. (2007). Information Age. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki » |
