These researchers used phrases such as ‘cultural acceleration’, ‘time/space compression’ and ‘the global village’. For many social scientists, these are just exciting buzz words. But for others these words describe some of the features of what has come to be known as the 'Information Society'.

The idea of the Information Society is that contemporary culture, economics and politics are in a process of dramatic change, the most important of which is the increased availability and value of information. In part, that change has come about in tandem with technological changes. The availability of email, for instance, has enabled some people to communicate very quickly with others in many places around the world. The Internet has created the possibility for new leisure pursuits and new economic opportunities. Mobile phones have engendered a ‘texting culture’ that itself has meant the development of a new language dialect. And satellite technology, digitisation, and the mass availability of images, in both ‘new media’ forms and in old ones, such as newspapers and magazines, have seemingly favoured a speeding up of exchange of cultures and cultural change (especially in the fashion industries).

On the evidence presented by ...