Page 177 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

NEW ECONOMY

network may motivate al-Qaida terrorism, which may therefore be
said to be a product of its extension across the world.

See also: Globalisation, Information society/information economy
Further reading: Escobar (2000)

NEW ECONOMY

The capitalisation and commercialisation of information and know-
ledge, especially via the use of ICT and newinteractive media. Alan
Greenspan, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank, described this
as a shift to a new‘weightless’ economy. As Diane Coyle explains:

whether it is software code, genetic codes, the creative
content of a film or a piece of music, the design of a newpair
of sunglasses or the vigilance of a security guard or helpfulness
of a shop assistant, value no longer lies in three-dimensional
objects in space.

(Coyle, 1998: x)

The value is in intangibles, especially information.
Although manufacturing is still necessary, much of this activity has
been redistributed to the less economically powerful nations or
adapted to newtechnologies in order to increase efficiency (Giddens,
1994). In this way, the new economy consists of the knowledge and
service industries. Skills, personality, knowledge, intelligence, informa-
tion and the technology to mobilise such qualities are at the centre of
the neweconomy.
For some it brings with it increasing risk (Beck, 1992), requiring
newattention to the cultivation of social capital and trust (Giddens,
2000; Leadbeater, 1997). When economists and social theorists use the
term neweconomy they are referring to the large shifts that have come
about through globalisation and information technologies. The
network society, the information society and the knowledge
society all describe the newconfigurations that influence and make
up the neweconomy.
See also: Globalisation

Further reading: Kelly (1998); Quah (1997); Tapscott (1995)

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