Uses of Information: When Social Information Becomes Desired

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 393, Heft 1, S. 20-31

Abstract

Most post-Weberian concepts of social system (of organization, bureaucracy, and the like), having been inspired by organic analogy, choose "survival of the system as such" as the analytical frame of reference and conclude that any system "is interested" in absorbing all information available. Systems, however, are dynamic configurations of competing forces and their need for information should not be taken for granted, for it is always selective and submitted to power considerations. One of the tasks of social information is to study and to obtain conditions which make the system open to the kind of information necessary to promote socio-economic growth.