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Stanford University
François
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Readings |
| Are we living through a historical transformation that is altering the organization of markets and the institutions of society both within and among countries? What do we mean by an information economy, E-commerce, or the Internet economy? What, if anything, is new and unique about these phenomena? To what extent are they linked to the transformation of telecommunications networks? Do they raise new kinds of economic or political questions requiring new policy and political processes? Some contend that the arrival of the Internet, the pervasive spread of digital networks and computing intelligence, is the edge of a historical revolution and transformation? One vantage would suggest that it augurs the next industrial revolution. Is it akin to the coming of the railroad or the automobile, a leading sector driving technological and economic development or more like the industrial revolution itself? A second vantage would measure the change by the structure and character of the society and polity. Are the rules of market, polity, and society altered in fundamental ways by the emerging digital technology? Has the role of the government changed in an economy of information products, information technologies, and pervasive "digital" networks? This is an international, not national transformation. The data networks certainly ever more closely link separated economic and social communities, both within and among nations. The ability to gain profits by arbitraging the information gap has been severely impaired. The marketplace for goods and services, indeed for corporate control, is enlarged. The mechanisms of managerial control are extended. Corporate governance suddenly becomes an international question. Social values translated into rules in one country--concerning for example a consumer's right to control the use of information about himself or herself as the Europeans have it run into conflict with different rules in different nations. Reconciliation becomes necessary, and it is difficult. These are not technical questions: they extend deep into social fabrics. To say the adaptation is global is to beg the question. Several different visions of what this new global political economy will be like are emerging. One important cleavage in that debate is whether there will be a single E-conomy in which American business has the lead, showing the way to others. Or, alternatively, whether several distinct network and market structures emerge as the several advanced countries move through this transformation in parallel. This is a stark way to set up the problem, but it underscores some of the key issues of how to manage and govern the interdependencies that are emerging. Of course, choices in one country, about privacy for example, alter the policy and business options for others. Indeed, the trajectory of technological development is itself influenced by policy choices and national contexts. The evident examples are the rise of Internet technology itself in the United States and the rapid deployment of wireless networks in Europe. In any case, there is the powerful policy question of how the several national choices are to be reconciled in an electronic network of markets and social linkages that is inherently global, as well, of course, as perfectly interdisciplinary. This seminar offers an opportunity to explore the forces shaping the transformation of the network infrastructure upon which an information Society and Economy can be built. It requires several optics, including at least some understanding of policy processes, business strategy and technology issues. Some understanding of broader socio-economic developments in North America, Europe and Asia is also useful. |
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| Meeting Time & Place |
| Mondays 2-5pm - McClatchy Hall, room 414 |
| To access the course website (registered students only): |