Editorial - telecommunication and globalization in the nineteenth century

• Verfasst von: Wenzlhuemer, Roland [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Editorial - telecommunication and globalization in the nineteenth century
• Verf.angabe: Roland Wenzlhuemer
• E-Jahr: 2010
• Jahr: [2010]
• Umfang: 12 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 29.11.2023
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Historical social research
• Ort Quelle: Mannheim : GESIS, 1979
• Jahr Quelle: 2010
• Band/Heft Quelle: Vol. 35 (2010), no. 1 = 131, Seite 7-18
• ISSN Quelle: 2366-6846
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Bibliogr. Hinweis: Erscheint auch als : Druck-Ausgabe: Wenzlhuemer, Roland, 1976 - : Editorial. - 2010
• K10plus-PPN: 1871575028

Abstract

Telecommunication systems dematerialize the information that they transmit and, thereby, detach the flow of information from the movement of material carriers such as people or goods. The immediate effect of such a dematerialization is a substantial gain in transmission speed, which has often been styled as the principal characteristic of telecommunication. Of far greater significance — at least from an analytical perspective — is, however, the relative gain in information transmission speed as against the speed of movement of people or goods. Flows of dematerialized information work along a completely new logic. It is one essential constituent of this logic that wherever telecommunication networks reach information outpaces material transport and can, therefore, be used to efficiently coordinate, control and command such material movement. The telegraph as the first fully-fledged telecommunication system pioneered this qualitative change and introduced a new rationale to global communication — and, therefore, ultimately to globalization processes of the nineteenth century.