Duff, Alistair (2006) Laying a foundation of fact: Fabianism and the information society thesis. Information, Communication and Society, 9 (4). pp. 515-536.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
"... Texts by thinkers such as Sidney Webb and H.G. Wells suggest that ‘informationalism’, a commitment to information in an original sense of hard facts and figures, must indeed be construed as the essence of Fabianism, as that which distinguishes the Fabians from more metaphysical or emotional expressions of socialism. The article traces the link between information-powered politics and the largely successful practice of social engineering in Britain. However, social engineering can, and in the case of some Fabians did, degenerate into a technocratic and even totalitarian mindset. Critiques of Fabianism are therefore also acknowledged here, including those claiming that the Fabian preoccupation with data-gathering and filing, its ‘proceduralism’, actually constituted a major weakness. However, given its noble informational ideal, Fabianism can, the article concludes, illuminate contemporary information society problems. The Fabian tradition contains suggestive materials on such topical themes as fair access to information, the role of facts in progressive politics, and the prospects for an international institutional order." - from Author's abstract.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HX Socialism. Communism. Anarchism |
| Date Deposited: | 21 May 2013 15:35 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Oct 2015 11:39 |
| URI: | http://webbs.library.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/736 |
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