Mémoire et savoirs à l'ère de l'information. XIVe colloque annuel du Groupe d'étude "Pratiques Sociales et Théories"

Coming from a range of scholarly disciplines, the contributions of this volume attempt to clarify the possible transformations of memory and learning with the constant and ever increasing pressure of new technologies of information and communication (NITC), characterised by the notions of "web", "interactivity", "real time", among others. It will no doubt develop, ever more certain, from controversial, or maybe complimentary, views on the place, function and meaning of the NTIC, in the current social and political context, but also on their potentials to transform society in one direction or another. For some, these new technologies, through the "industrialisation" of memory and computerisation of learning, with its crucial function of simulation, would allow the re-launch of worldwide capitalism of big monopolies, being in a position to exercise a domination and an effective control on all users. For others, isolating the potentials of these interactive technologies makes it possible, in an ultimate manner for all humanity, to establish a society of shared knowledge, even a perfect form of a technologically regulated democracy. These controversial views lead to differences and debates that dismiss, in the final analysis, radically contrasting presumptions on the human condition.