A term put forward by Castells (1993 1-2) to describe a society built on technologies of information storage, retrieval, and transmission, time-space compression, post-Fordism, flexible accumulation, and the advance of finance capital, which is characterized by networking, globalization, and the flexibility, individuality, and instability of work. Castells holds that such a society induces poverty, spurs ‘greed, innovation, and hope, while simultaneously imposing hardship, and installing despair’, while Donert (Geography 85), noting that ‘no place on earth is immune to the new information society’, calls for a legislative framework to recognize and protect the users of cyberspace, and a body responsible for financial issues, especially for taxation.

A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved.