4 February 2011 

The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has created a certain belief that investing in it can create miracles. It’s weightless and intangible travelling effortlessly around the world, enlightening the lives of people everywhere. The knowledge-based society supported by ICTS is claimed by some to be a model that is universally applicable.

LSE's Professor Robin Mansell, argues that the truth is much more complicated. Through extensive research, she argues that professionals from different disciplines including technologists and social scientists don't communicate effectively enough to endorse these claims. Crucially, policy-makers are lacking an evidence base upon which to support their judgements of a linear model in new technologies.  

Robin Mansell is Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communications. She is Honorary Professor at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex and served as Trustee of IDS (Institute of Development Studies), Sussex 1999-2009. 

Professor Mansell gave this seminar as part of the IDS Members Seminar Series on 26 January 2011.