Introduction

Abstract

In the mid-1990s a radical shift in economic production took place. This shift is often compared to the introduction of steam-powered machines, which changed the economic mode of production. Like the steam engine, information communication technologies¹ (ICTs) transform the way in which economic value-added is created. These new technologies are the pivot of the changing economy because surplus value is created through the application of knowledge to information. Technologies speed up this application of knowledge on information and are a result of these knowledge-generating processes (Castells, 2000; 2004a). This means that these new technologies are shaped by and shape society (MacKenzie and Wajcman, 1999b). The new economic formation is referred to as ‘the information society’, ‘knowledge society’ or ‘new economy’,² or sometimes as ‘the weightless economy’ (Quah, 1999) or ‘software capitalism’ (Bauman, 2000).