A Research Agenda for the Future

Abstract

This volume does not constitute yet another account of the blessings of ICTs. Nor does it add new criticism to the old, nurturing fears about the future. The goal of this book is to provide an overview and reinterpretation of the main issues on digital information technology in world politics, relating them to the processes of transformation of the current historical system. Inspired by the Braudelian concept of the multiplicity of time—and space—diachronic and synchronic and of the close-knitted unity of the phenomenon under investigation, i.e. the capitalist world-economy, an interpretative key is developed in an approach which could substantially enable advancement in this field of study both in theoretical and methodological terms. Despite the limited number of cases and issues investigated, the contributions to this volume show that the diffusion of new technologies engender transformations that go beyond declared political objectives. Often this is understood as an expression of the “unintentional consequences” of social action. However, this is not the case. What appears as “unintentional consequences”—socio-cultural tensions and contradictions— is instead, constitutive of the capitalist system in its historical development.