Societal and Global Computerization: Theoretical Considerations with Reference to the Less Developed World Joseph Matvey Ph.D. Sociology, University of Pittsburgh, 1987 Email: skeets@telerama.lm.com Abstract While internal drives toward modernity are certainly primary facilitators of computerization in the less developed world, the emphasis in this paper also centers on the broader dynamics of globalization and global computerization and the corresponding impacts upon societal systems (and sectors within those systems) to computerize. Introduction At first sight, societal and global computerization as sociological themes appear most appropriate in discussions and inquiries of so called post-modern societal systems. Computerization, in fact, achieved central relevance in sociological thought during the initial thematization of Post- Industrialism. Although debate continues on the relevance of particular notions regarding transformative and epochal shifts at the theoretical core of Post-Industrialism, there are clearly technological and techno-occupational characteristics common to this particular societal type. One technological characteristic is revealed in the comprehensive manifestation of computerization throughout the structural and cultural fabric of the social system. While heightened computer use by individuals and the emergence of computers as household items are two indicators of this phenomenon, more fundamental is the proliferation of institutional and sectoral utilization along with the linkages within and across these sectors. There appears to be, in other words, a growing density of inter- and intra sectoral computer-assisted networks of communication and information. These networks are partially a response to the expanding functional adaptability of the computer over the past half-century on the one hand, and the growing complexity management and information coordination needs fostered by higher rates of societal and intra-sectoral differentiation on the other. Despite the pervasiveness of computerization in information- based post-industrial society, there are logical justifications in applying themes of societal and global computerization across the entire system of societies. First, there is in fact evidence of numerous drives and active initiatives--whether directed by a central political bureaucracy or particular institutional sectors within a system--toward computerization in LDCs. Although these may be limited in terms of nationwide span and scope due to numerous structural constraints, they nevertheless embed the computerization process within larger drives and orientations on the part of State, toward modernity. For instance, in the PRC (China) Tate and Maier report: ...by the end of 1986, China had an installed base of 8,000 minicomputers and mainframes, and over 200,000 micros. The number of LANs is still low, but it's growing rapidly. There are currently over 170,000 computer professionals in China, half of whom are involved in developing new applications. ...According to a 1986 report from the U.S. embassy in China, over 60% of the computers in China are used in transportation and industry, 17% in science and education, and only 3.4% in commerce and finance (Tate and Maier, 1987: 34). The PRC has, for quite a number of years, held internal computer producing capacity which greatly aided the diffusion of computerization throughout central sectors (Maier, 1988). In addition, a computerization ethic is also highly evident. In 1978, the State developed a national strategy to "modernize four key areas: industry, agriculture, the military, and science and technology" (Tate and Maier, 1987: 33). Computerization was held significantly in this strategy, and is viewed today as a "key development objective" (1987: 34). Tate and Maier document its value among sectoral and political elites: ...The hope is that the use of computers can aid the transformation of the country from a largely agrarian and local craft-based society into a major world economic power in the twenty-first century (1987: 34). This is not to suggest that computerization in and of itself will solve the modernity problem--as "can aid" is the operative phrase. Dr. Hu Qiheng, president of the Chinese Computer Federation, believes deep rooted problems with "the enormous size of our country and our organizational structure," may limit the effectiveness of computerization in the drive toward modernity unless the "many unreasonable processes" arising from these problems are reformed (1987: 34). A second central reason for considering computerization as a process with global implications is while access and utilization of computers by the general population is essentially irrelevant in vast numbers of underdeveloped countries, computerization in terms of its significance to specific central sectors is visibly evident. Sectors are essentially more fundamental to the theme of societal computerization, primarily due to the fact that it is the institutional sector, in the sociological sense of the word, which is a pivotal organizing force and steering mechanism over communication and information flows and production and exchange. Institutional and sectoral elites, particularly in the less developed world, occupy the command positions for decisions regarding social change and modernity in these societies. Although computerization may be out of reach for the masses, it may also increasingly be viewed as a necessary technology by elites of specific sectors. India, defined as a fourth world society and holding one of the lowest per capita daily calorie supplies, is a case where computerization is highly relevant to various societal sectors. In India, a State-owned computer agency, the CMC, defined its central mission as one which entailed diffusing computer "information technology" to "core" sectors and infrastructure of the societal system (Far Eastern Economic Review, 1988: 60). Some of the CMC sponsored projects include: ...a criminal -records system for the New Delhi police, a multi-state fingerprint image enhancement and identification system, a UN- funded feasibility study for the Narmade River Valley hydro-meteorological project, a traffic-management system for freight trains...(Far Eastern Economic Review, 1988: 60). Hence the sectoral focus, in most cases, is a starting point for inquiry and analysis of the emergence and development of computerization in the less developed world. A third point of consideration, constituting the central focus of this paper, rests with the globalization process and its subsequent impacts upon societal drives toward computerization. Globalization can be defined as the tightening of the world into a more "compressed" and interedependent landscape. In a rapidly globalizing world, the information and communication networks of sectors--discussed above--do not neatly end at the borders of a societal system. While there tends to be a general vertical- integrative pattern among institutional and organizational sectors within a social system, there are also numerous horizontal links between "like" sectors and organizational forms at the distinctly global level. This tends to bond societal elites and sectoral specialists within globally-oriented networks of communication and productivity flows. This dynamic not only affects societies with a post-industrial base or on the verge of modernization, but underdeveloped Fourth and Fifth World societies alike. Global Computerization and Globalization At the most general of levels, computerization is essentially perceived as one of the more significant instruments facilitating the technological "compression" and "interdependence" of the globe. This, of course does not suggest technological primacy in the globalization process, rather, a dynamic socio-cultural formation evolving in the direction of intensified intersocietal interaction and utilizing computerization as a kind of social highway to assist this process. Computerization is valued for its power of linkage-- in other words, it represents accessing the wider global system for individual societal systems. Globalization ordains and demands a sort of rush hour of association and participation of societal and sectoral entities within larger global contexts and formats. As this dynamic intensifies, computerization's significance continues to expand. Plugging into the world and accessing the system may be catch phrases, but they also accurately describe a dynamic process lending itself to the creation of a "single world." In fact, as computerization is more comprehensively embedded in the technological aspects of globalization, it now becomes possible to speak of global computerization or the objective computerization of the globe. Global Computerization refers to the proliferation and degree of intersocietal computerized or computer-assisted linkages binding societal systems, social sectors and various institutional entities at the distinctly global level. The important point however, is that access is both critical and paramount for all societal systems and other societal/global institutions, and computerization is increasingly valued for is its perceived and very real ability to assist in access and connectivity. China (PRC), reveals an example of a system with drives toward both external and internal access and linkage. In 1987, the PRC "made an official application to join Bitnet, an academic and research network that now includes over 200 member institutions in 17 counties" (Tate and Maier, 1987:40) The polity is also is pursuing a program of expansion on its telecom system, involving "an expanding microwave network between 17 cities" (1987: 40). Along with these developments, the PRC "has installed 53 transmit/receive satellite earth stations and approximately 2,000 receive-only earth stations" (1987: 40). Computerization also functions to facilitate the build up of social density through the creation a numerous "indirect social relationships" (Calhoun, 1987) on the one hand, and providing a format for a fairly comprehensive degree of interactivity (Rogers, 1986) between connected parties on the other. Calhoun (1987) has demonstrated that one of the hallmark features in both the shift toward and unfolding of progressive modernity rests with an increase in the number and volume of indirect relationships social and institutional life rely upon. Computerization's power rests with the capacity to create extremely comprehensive indirect relationships through providing a particular technological format for the multidimensional interaction of consciousnesses. It permits, in other words, not only the rapid transfer of large volumes of information over great geographic distances, but interactive on-line communication, dialogue, conferencing, tasking and "telework" (Rogers, 1986: 188). Only relatively recently removed from an era of dependence upon postal and telephone networks, "what" we can do and the "ways" we interact in the absence of face-to-face relationships have necessarily expanded through computerization. Due to this fact, computer-assisted social density provides the potential for not only interconnectedness, but an alternative dimension for the development of new forms of solidarities, communal ties and collective frames of reference. While the processes of globalization are primarily social, properties and characteristics such as linkage, instant access, communication and information coordination and multidimensional interaction heighten the feasibility of computerization, particularly within global institutional and organization formats and internationalized sectors. Computerization is further induced through a push toward general global informational access and the corresponding societal dependence upon satellite and tele- communications systems. In many instances, the intensification of computer use in many aspects of the globalization process creates corresponding incentives, pressures, and demands upon societal elites develop an infrastructure--even if only in the most urban zones--capable of supporting computer environments. While taken for granted within the First World, globalization exerts a pressure upon societal elites and specialists from less developed nations. At this juncture, it will prove useful to expand on a few of these dimensions to examine the specific ways globalization encourages and in some cases, requires a pre-existing level of computerization on the part of societal systems. 1] Socialization through Association First, often within global institutional and organizational environments, social elites and representatives of the LDCs witness the tremendous dependence of their First World associates upon computerization in terms of research, modeling, on-line communication, the construction of programs of actions, and general day-to-day work tasks and routines. The global institution and global- gatherings, conferences, and events often function as arenas for the dissemination of these value orientations toward and modes of dependence upon computerization from First World members to members of LDCs. In other words, through their very association in global institutions--societal elites and non-technical representatives are socialized to revere computerization as one of the necessary rhythms and drives in the modern world. 2] Global Area Networks Second, global connectivity--in the form of both internationalized sectors and global institutions--tends to encourage computer dependence among associated societal sectors and specialists. A number of global institutions, like the World Health Organization, for instance, function at a much more extensive capacity than a annual ritualistic gathering of various national representatives. Some are complex enduring work environments necessitating continued interaction and inputs from sphere-specialists operating in various national contexts. In this sense, intensified commitments to globally-oriented interaction make geographic space problematic. While increases in the frequency of regional and global conferencing partially solves this problem, the development of a global computerized infrastructure in societal systems allows masses of information and interaction to flow quite easily across national boundaries. Global Computerized Infrastructure refers to the technological hardware, and apparatus societal systems and sectors within those societal systems plug- into in accessing wider global networks. It essentially provides connectedness and linkage, and the most fundamental expression of a global infrastructure of computerization includes the GAN (global area network). There is a proliferation, in recent years, of GANs, primarily in the form of international network systems which provide opportunities for communication, dialogue, techno-informational flows, and an increase of social density at a distinctly global level. GANs are not only utilized by highly structured global institutional forms, but also by specialists and individuals who form temporary loose knit global associations through connectivity. GANs take numerous forms including international conferencing by specialists in the academic, scientific, and political spheres. They are also increasingly used to tighten the interdependence of the global financial communities and multinational corporate networks. What is central for our purposes here, with regard to GANs, is the ability and degree to which societal sectors and specialists can access the variety of GANs, as access tend to be more difficult and expensive for least developed nations. In the less developed world increased pressures and expectations to computerize interface with numerous internal structural constraints creating particularized tensions and frustrations not common in more developed societal systems. Tombaugh's (1984) evaluation of an International Scientific Computer Conference provides one example. Although close to one-third of the invited scientists from the developing world and slightly over twenty percent from the developed world participated in the computer conference, Tombaugh surveyed non-participants from both socio-economic settings to categorize reasons for non-participation. Tombaugh noted that "time constraints were a greater problem for those in the industrialized countries, while difficulties with costs, the telecommunication link, and access to a terminal had higher mean ratings" for the scientific community in the developing world (1984: 138). Moreover, another consideration is the need created in the less developed world for a qualified scientific/technical personnel to maintain computerized infrastructure and systems, once initiated. 3] Global Information Environment A third dimension of global computerization and its impacts upon societal systems, is the emergence and concentration of a global informational environment and the corresponding rush on the part of societal systems and sectors to link with this media. Societal sectors often utilize the satellite and global media system as a telecommunications GAN. Satellite systems require computer-assisted earth stations whereby global and regional information is gathered and disseminated. In the First World cable networks as well as individual home satellite owners accomplish this task, while in the less developed world, central institutions often act as the nucleus of access for international communication and information. Moreover, as less developed societies and their sectors purchase satellite systems along with its basic infrastructure, their is a corresponding penetration of media networks across individual societal systems to the point one can easily speak of the global media as one sphere in the process of global connectivity. Penetration creates heightened interdependence through adding to the proliferation of national media personnel in contact with more globally-centralized and computer-dependent media specialists. 4] Standards and Computerization A fourth dimension inducing societal and sectoral computerization centers on emergent cultural orientations. Heightened reliance upon the computer as a form of linkage and a tool for day to day operations acts to create a set of standards within global institutions regarding computerization. Standards and sets of expectations often create pressures upon more underdeveloped systems and sectors to computerize. Sudan, for instance, offers a case of a societal system where sectoral computerization is beginning to emerge, but nevertheless highly significant to the society's drive toward modernity. Recently, a micro-computer based information-management system was introduced within the Sudanese Planning Ministry. Although a planning ministry is highly internally focused, the plight of the less developed world has pushed many of these institutional forms within a larger transsocietal network of relationships as Calhoun details: ...a contemporary Third World country, especially one which depends heavily on foreign donors and related agencies for its economic well-being, is drawn into a web of record keeping, data provision and paperwork which its domestic economy would not necessitate. This is the result of its external dependency, because the international organizations which provide aid and monitor credit make the provision, manipulation and management of information central (Calhoun, 1987: 362). In the Sudan, computerization as a means of information management becomes the saving grace--meeting the "standardized" demands of global institutions while maintaining the flows of assistance. The struggle for modernity proceeds. 5] Global Urban Environments The emergence of Global Urban Environments may be considered yet another crucial development in the globalization process heightening the significance of computerization in less developed societal systems. Although the computer provides an indirect avenue to international interaction across geographic space, global moral density is often spatially expressed in particular urban environments. In particular, rapid increases in international travel and communication, in global-oriented business ventures and commitments, in global conferencing and organizational gatherings, in access, linkage and interdependence with other urban centers, and even in international commodity flows from one urban zone to the next have increasingly made all societies host to at least one or more urban zones which can be designated as a global urban center. The emergence and expansion of global urban environments impacts upon the drive toward societal computerization, particularly in the less developed world. Heightened international density within urban zones has long created pressures for the standardization of urban infrastructure regardless of the societal context. In other words, as international interaction increases--even in the fourth and fifth world urban zones--there is a push toward standardized communications, services, office complexes, and technological infrastructure. Already, much of this is a reality in the less developed world, with the corporate sector of the urban zones a mirror image--to a certain extent--of the First World. What emerges, however, is an intensification of linkages, inputs and outputs across national boundaries in global urban centers-- especially in information retrieval and management. Couple this with a growing interdependence between various global urban centers and one finds that as computerization becomes more comprehensive and pervasive within First World urban infrastructure--added pressure is placed upon the less developed world to provide the necessary technological apparatus so both interdependence and international density--perceived in many ways as a development tool--can be maintained and sustained at adequate levels. Concluding Notes While the considerations above by no means exhaust the potential number of global social dynamics influencing both the rate and significance of global computerization, they should give some idea of the numerous multifaceted connections--well beyond the scope of the economic and political--existing between a variety of sectors across societies. These links and connections have tended to build rapidly in recent years, whether through highly orchestrated and structured global organizational environments or decentralized communication and productivity flows between institutional specialists from differing national environments. What has been emphasized is simply that computerization is far more than a post-industrial phenomenon. It is increasing perceived as part of equation of modernity for the less developed world and highly embedded in the processes of globalization. These processes affect all societies, regardless of economic base or technological type, and it is clear that globalization increases both the incentives and pressures for the less developed world to computerize--although computerization is highly geographically clustered and limited to specific urban-based sectors in many of these societies. It should also be pointed out that changes or intensifications in the degree and format of computerization as a result of ongoing globalization, tend to send reverberations throughout the entire modern global system. Higher rates of computerization in global- oriented environments and institutional settings, for instance, sends inputs to the global cultural where the meaning of computerization in modern global and societal life is continually redefined and upgraded. For instance, a quarter of a century ago computerization was more confined to notions of its role in modernity and internal systems upgrading. Computerization now emerges in the global cultural as an increasingly strengthened ideal in linking the world. The broadening and redefining process for the value and meaning of computerization is generated not merely due to technological developments, but through the increasing social density and institutionalized interaction at the global level and the drives on the part of global institutional elites to incorporate computer technology in managing and ordering the density and interaction. A redefined computerization ethic, in turn, signal numerous inputs to individual societies in terms of commitments to computerization. Part of the package of societal computerization, can no longer be primarily defined in terms of expenditures on mainframes and micros. This package must also include linkage hardware: satellite systems, upgraded telecommunications systems, and corporate offices and advanced educational facilities with the capability for on-line access to global systems of information. There is also, of course, a wider question regarding global computerization and comprehensive social change in the less developed world, particularly the Fourth and Fifth Worlds. What other kind of tensions are produced in the face of global "expectations" and "definitions" which obligate a society to computerize and connect in conjunction with an internal structural system highly non-conducive to this development? 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