Terms like knowledge and information society dominate the discussion about the future of industrial societies. However, in contrast to the grand proclamations announcing the arrival of a new era, the efforts to analytically clarify concepts and phenomena appear rather modest. We are still far from a socially scientific satisfactory theory of the information society, despite the fact that central terms and ideas were already developed in the 1960s and 70s. Among the most elaborated approaches today are Manuel Castells' highly regarded study on the information age society, Daniel Bell's classic concept of the "post-industrial society," and the "knowledge society" conceived by management theorist Peter Drucker. The book introduces these three concepts and provides a...