In this accessible and entertaining book, Perelman documents the class nature of the supposed revolution in information, the extent to which their has been such a revolution, and its implications for economic policy.
Perelman first questions supposed indicators of the extent to which an information economy has arisen. In addition to the usual arguments that the fact that certain jobs have become primarily informational doesn't indicate that the total amount of work relating to information has increased, Perelman explores the class nature of such phenomena. The development of capitalism has been a process in which the knowledge of workers has been expropriated and monopolized by capitalists. Thus, the number of job descriptions that are "informational" has increased, and most of these jobs are administrators who now deal with information that workers used to.
Perelman shows how advances in information technology have been used to control the labor process. he cites examples of specific technologies that are inefficient but give capital greater control over labor. He also gives numerous quotes of higher ups in information technology companies explaining that this is the most important function of their product.
He then shows how the deprivation of workers of information hurts innovation and product quality. A chapter on Panopticism outlines how informantion technology has been used for social control beyond the labor process.
The last few chapters involve economic theory. Drawing heavily on Kenneth Arrow, Perelman shows how the theory taught in ECON 101 shows that information is a good to be produced by the state. Paul Krugman's latest awful micro intro text mentions this in fact, but only gives it a little space.
the last chapter is a good criticism of Hayek's arguments about the informational efficiency of capitalism.
