The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Social Context

About this book

When we make phone calls and use computers electronic devices mediate how we communicate. In each instance we exchange symbols and information just as we have since humans began speaking and writing. What thenbesides economy of space and timedifferentiates electronic communications from ordinary speech and writing? The difference Mark Poster argues is the profound effect electronic mediation exerts on the very way we perceive ourselves and reality. To help decode the linguistic dimensions of our multiple forms of social interaction he plays upon Marxs theory of the mode of productionthe shift to late capitalism has a parallel in the shift from the mode of production to that of information. Enlisting poststructuralist theory he links four modes of communication with four poststructuralists: TV ads with Baudrillard data bases with Foucault electronic writing with Derrida and computer science with Lyotard. Mode of Information points the way to a poststructuralist strategy for writing history a framework well suited to unearthing structures of domination and the means to their disruption. "An informed insightful provocative account of phenomena that have transformed virtually every area of public and private life on our time."Robert Anchor American Historical Review "The importance of Posters book is unmistakable for he skillfully negotiates between and juxtaposes two wide theoretical domainselectronically mediated communications and poststructuralist theoryabout which much has been written but hardly with the acumen that he brings to bear in a long-awaited critical rapprochement."Charles J. Stivale Criticism