Editing Information society (section)

==Sociological uses==
[[File:Ayuntamiento, vistas panorámicas desde Toompea, Tallin, Estonia, 2012-08-05, DD 21.JPG|thumb|[[Estonia]], a small [[Baltic country]] in northern [[Europe]], is one of the most advanced digital societies.<ref>{{cite magazine | url= https://www.wired.co.uk/article/digital-estonia |title=Welcome to E-stonia, the world's most digitally advanced society |magazine= [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date= 15 July 2020}}</ref>]]
In [[sociology]], '''''informational society''''' refers to a [[postmodernity|post-modern]] type of society. Theoreticians like [[Ulrich Beck]], [[Anthony Giddens]] and [[Manuel Castells]] argue that since the 1970s a transformation from [[industrial society]] to informational society has happened on a global scale.<ref>[[Leonid Grinin|Grinin, L.]] 2007. Periodization of History: A theoretic-mathematical analysis. In: [http://urss.ru/cgi-bin/db.pl?cp=&page=Book&id=53184&lang=en&blang=en&list=1 ''History & Mathematics''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206111250/http://urss.ru/cgi-bin/db.pl?cp=&page=Book&id=53184&lang=en&blang=en&list=1 |date=2012-02-06 }}. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. P.10-38. {{ISBN|978-5-484-01001-1}}.</ref>

As [[steam power]] was the technology standing behind industrial society, so [[information technology]] is seen as the catalyst for the changes in work organisation, societal structure and politics occurring in the late 20th century.

In the book ''[[Future Shock]]'', [[Alvin Toffler]] used the phrase '''super-industrial society''' to describe this type of society.  Other writers and thinkers have used terms like "[[post-industrial society]]" and "post-modern industrial society" with a similar meaning.