Citizenship and Agency Under Neoliberal Global Consumerism A Search for Informed Democratic Practices

摘要

This article situates the ethics of information professionals within its contemporary public and political settings. An information ethics so contextualized can help promote the kinds of democratic and global citizenships that are the basis of this special issue of the Journal of Information Ethics. While this paper cannot fully canvas the issues raised, it can take us some way in balancing our perspective on the political issues packed inside the goals of an informed, global citizenry. It proposes a coherent network of concepts about the political context of the contemporary world by mapping its challenges. The article reviews the political and public content of the concepts of global and globalization, citizen and citizenship, and discusses the implied agency of the informed global citizen. It concludes with a discussion that draws out some of the broad responses to these contexts.