We’re inclined to assume that digital technologies have suddenly revolutionized everything in just a few years, including our relationships, our forms of work and leisure and even our democracies. Armin Nassehi puts forward a new theory of digital society which turns this assumption on its head. Rather than treating digital technologies as an independent causal force that is transforming social life, he asks: for which problem is digitization a solution?  When we pose the question in this way, we can see, argues Nassehi, that digitization helps societies deal with, and reduce, complexity by using coded numbers to process information about society.  We can also see that modern societies already had a digital structure long before modern computer technologies were developed – already in the nineteenth century, for example, statistical pattern recognition technologies were being used in functionally differentiated societies in order to recognize, monitor and control forms of human behaviour. Digital technologies were so successful in such a short period of time, and were able to penetrate so many areas of society so quickly, precisely because of a pre-existing sensitivity that prepared modern societies for digital development. This highly original book lays the foundations for a theory of digital society that will be of value to everyone interested in the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives.

We’re inclined to assume that digital technologies have suddenly revolutionized everything in just a few years, including our relationships, our forms of work and leisure and even our democracies. Armin Nassehi puts forward a new theory of digital society which turns this assumption on its head. Rather than treating digital technologies as an independent causal force that is transforming social life, he asks: for which problem is digitization a solution?  When we pose the question in this way, we can see, argues Nassehi, that digitization helps societies deal with, and reduce, complexity by using coded numbers to process information about society.  We can also see that modern societies already had a digital structure long before modern computer technologies were developed – already in the nineteenth century, for example, statistical pattern recognition technologies were being used in functionally differentiated societies in order to recognize, monitor and control forms of human behaviour. Digital technologies were so successful in such a short period of time, and were able to penetrate so many areas of society so quickly, precisely because of a pre-existing sensitivity that prepared modern societies for digital development. This highly original book lays the foundations for a theory of digital society that will be of value to everyone interested in the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives.