Neo-Rawlsian Co-ordinates: Notes on A Theory of Justice for the Information Age.

The ideas of philosopher John Rawls should be appropriated for the information age. A literature reviewidentifies previous contributions in fields such as communication and library and information science. Thearticle postulates the following neo-Rawlsian propositions as co-ordinates for the development of a normativetheory of the information society: that political philosophy should be incorporated into information societystudies; that social and technological circumstances define the limits of progressive politics; that the right isprior to the good in social morality; that the nation state should remain in sharp focus, despite globalization;that liberty, the first principle of social justice, requires updating to deal with the growth of surveillance andother challenges; that social wellbeing is a function of equal opportunities plus limited inequalities of outcome,in information as well as material resources; and that political stability depends upon an overlappingconsensus accommodating both religion and secularism. Although incomplete, such co-ordinates can help toguide policy-makers in the twenty-first century