The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies

The production and consumption of Information and Communication Technologies (or ICTs) have become embedded within our societies. The influence and implications of this have an impact at a macro level, in the way our governments, economies, and businesses operate, and in our everyday lives. This handbook is about the many challenges presented by ICTs. It sets out an intellectual agenda that examines the implications of ICTs for individuals, organizations, democracy, and the economy. Explicity interdisciplinary, and combining empirical research with theoretical work, it is organised around four themes covering the knowledge economy; organizational dynamics, strategy, and design; governance and democracy; and culture, community and new media literacies. It provides a comprehensive resource for those working in the social sciences, and in the physical sciences and engineering fields, with leading contemporary research informed principally by the disciplines of anthropology, economics, philosophy, politics, and sociology.

Robin Mansell is Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science. She is internationally known for her work on the social, economic, and technical issues arising from new technologies, especially in the computer and telecommunication industries. Her research examines the integration of new technologies into society, the interaction between engineering design and the structure of markets, and the sources of regulatory effectiveness and failure. She has contributed to policy discussion and formulation for the liberalization of the telecommunication sector, the development of electronic commerce, the governance of universal access, and developing country responses to globalization. She serves as and academic governor of the LSE, as a Trustee of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, and is President of IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communications Research) 2004-2008.
Chrisanthi Avgerou is Professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her main interests concern the relationship of IT to organizational change and the role of IT in socio-economic development. She is chairperson of the IFIP Technical Committee 9 on Social Implications of Information Technology and she chaired the IFIP WG 9.4 group on computers in developing countries from 1996 till 2003. Among her recent publications are Information Systems and Global Diversity, and The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology: Innovation, Actors, and Contexts.
Danny Quah is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His work is concerned with economic growth, income inequality, new technology, intellectual assets, information technology and the weightless economy.
Roger Silverstone is Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previous publications include Media, Technology and Everyday Life in Europe (Ashgate, 2005) and Why Study the Media? (Sage, 1999).