Routledge Focus on IT & Society – serie

This book offers a fresh perspective on information systems, a field of study and practice currently undergoing substantial upheaval, even as it expands rapidly and widely with new technologies and applications. Mapping the field as it has developed, the author firmly establishes the under-recognized importance of the field, and grounds it firmly in the subject’s history. He argues against the view of enthusiasts who believe that the field has somehow moved "beyond information systems" to something more exotic and offers a short and compelling manifesto on behalf of the field and its future. Offering a comprehensive insight into the significance of the information systems field, this book will appeal primarily to scholars and practitioners working in information systems, management, communication studies, technology studies, and related areas.

This book offers a fresh perspective on information systems, a field of study and practice currently undergoing substantial upheaval, even as it expands rapidly and widely with new technologies and applications. Mapping the field as it has developed, the author firmly establishes the under-recognized importance of the field, and grounds it firmly in the subject’s history. He argues against the view of enthusiasts who believe that the field has somehow moved "beyond information systems" to something more exotic and offers a short and compelling manifesto on behalf of the field and its future. Offering a comprehensive insight into the significance of the information systems field, this book will appeal primarily to scholars and practitioners working in information systems, management, communication studies, technology studies, and related areas.

How do cables and data centers think? This book investigates how information infrastructures enact particular forms of knowledge. It juxtaposes the pervasive logics of speed, efficiency, and resilience with more communal and ecological ways of thinking and being, turning technical “solutions” back into open questions about what society wants and what infrastructures should do.Moving from data centers in Hong Kong to undersea cables in Singapore and server clusters in China, Munn combines rich empirical material with insights drawn from media and cultural studies, sociology, and philosophy. This critical analysis stresses that infrastructures are not just technical but deeply epistemological, privileging some actions and actors while sidelining others.This innovative exploration of the values and visions at the heart of our technologies will interest students, scholars, and researchers in the areas of communication studies, digital media, technology studies, sociology, philosophy of technology, information studies, and geography.