The Space Economy of Convergence

Abstract

The convergence of satellite, telephony and computer technologies has been hailed by many as the catalyst for the Information Technology revolution. However, convergence, like the term globalisation, is a much-used and much-abused term; and convergence, like globalisation is usually merely asserted as a factor in a vague and unexplained way. Why did convergence take place at the time and in the manner it did? This paper will set out to construct a theory of convergence and argue that the convergence process has its genesis in a much wider economic and political dynamic - that is to say the 'crisis of space' that occurred in the mid- to late-1970s. The economic and political 'resolution' to this ongoing process, the dynamics of which are still in operation today, set in train the late capitalist phase of globalisation. A consequence of this was the rapid convergence of hitherto discrete technologies into the highly dynamic and hugely powerful IT revolution. The nature of converged technologies, and their effects upon the nature of communication, of consumption and production - and ultimately the cultures and societies which evolve out of these processes, is analysed through this critical framework.