Information Technologies and Social Orders

The history of human society, as Couch recounts it in his speculative final book, is a history of successive, sometimes overlapping information technologies used to process the varied symbolic representations that inform particular social contexts. Couch departs from earlier media” theorists who ignored these contexts in order to concentrate on the technologies themselves. Here, instead, he adopts a consistent theory of interpersonal and intergroup relations to depict the essential interface between the technologies and the social contexts. In its review, Contemporary Sociology said, The volume is full of smart insights and valuable information, a fitting final effort for a scholar of great distinction.”