2,088
Views
16
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Rating the revolution: Silicon Valley in normative perspective

Pages 1605-1621 | Received 05 Aug 2015, Accepted 11 Jan 2016, Published online: 10 Feb 2016
 

ABSTRACT

Silicon Valley, California – home of Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and so on – is widely regarded as the epicentre of the information revolution. However, it is not just a technical or economic phenomenon; it has also made a social revolution. The article evaluates Silicon Valley from a normative perspective, seeking to identify its real societal impact, negative as well as positive. A select review of significant literature is followed by exposition of primary data, based on in situ face-to-face interviews with Valley occupants; these range from the chief technology officer of a global brand to a homeless, unemployed Vietnam War veteran. The article organises its findings under three headings: the nature of information revolution; iCapitalism as a new technoeconomic synthesis; and the normative crisis of the information society. It concludes with a warning about ongoing attempts to clone Silicon Valley around the world.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

I am grateful to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for a research grant towards the funding of the fieldwork for this article (grant no. 31607).

Notes on contributor

Alistair S. Duff is professor of information policy at Edinburgh Napier University. With a background in political philosophy and information science, he is the author of Information society studies (Routledge 2000) and more recently A normative theory of the information society (Routledge 2012), as well as articles in journals, encyclopedias and newspapers. He is currently principal investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project, Informing the Good Society: New Directions in Information Policy. [email: [email protected]]

Additional information

Funding

I am grateful to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for a research grant towards the funding of the fieldwork for this article (grant no. 31607).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 304.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.