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BRINGING MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES TO AUSTRALIA'S COMMUNICATION FUTURES: BEYOND THE SUPERHIGHWAY?
Abstract
A case study is presented of the multi-method and multi-discipline approach to anticipating the social and policy implications of new communication and information technologies (C&IT) being adopted by the Communication Centre at the Queensland University of Technology. This work draws on frameworks which include action research, structurational approaches to technology, coevolutionary systems theory, information economics, feminist and poststructuralist theories, and civilisational and critical approaches to futures studies. The main theoretical perspectives and methodologies we draw on are outlined, together with some of our research findings. Some future scenarios for communication in Australia, beyond the technological optimism of the information superhighway rhetoric, are presented. The often paradoxical relationship between technological change and social change is recognised. We argue that rather than being driven by the entertainment or commercially-oriented applications of the ‘information superhighway’, we need alternative future scenarios and designs for C&IT which facilitate cooperation, gender equity, inclusion of the Other and social justice.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
The approaches we have adopted all recognise the complex interrelationship between society and culture, while avoiding positions which draw on grand narratives such as liberalism and Marxism.
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We argue that while poststructuralism provides a useful means of deconstructing social and cultural practices, it rarely offers strategies for change.
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See A. Giddens, op. cit. Our research also examines how our genetic evolution is being transformed by technology. Instead of only focusing on the technological and social interface, we seek to understand how stable historical evolution is itself under threat.
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