New Communication Technologies in Developing Countries

This volume explores how a number of developing countries -- including India, Malaysia, Columbia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia -- are responding to the pressures of the information society. Infrastructural development, policies, and social systems are investigated, and models of information technologies and society are proposed in order to better reference the differences and similarities among the nations profiled. The authors identify the social technology perspective via the assimilation of technology in lifestyles and social systems. From this perspective, the diffusion of technologies is analyzed with a critical eye for theories of culture lag, diffusion and innovation, and technological determinism and liberalism. The social perspective is a new addition to development studies, and the reader may see how, as the global information society comes into focus, the social dimensions are more important than some theorists originally envisioned.