The information society: Permanent crisis through the (dis)ordering of networks

People often assume that computerized networks are relatively stable and well connected. This implies that the network society, or information society, is also relatively stable, well ordered and adaptive. However, computer software and networks repeatedly fail or prove inadequate, so we cannot assume that network society is stable. Similarly, misinformation is as expected and socially important as information. By taking this disorder seriously, it becomes possible to observe data that paradigms that primarily seek order exclude and to reveal some of the fundamental paradoxes of the information society that simultaneously both undermine and establish that society. By means of these informational paradoxes, I consider and elucidate some network and software failures from January 2011. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd & Global Networks Partnership