自上世紀六零年代末學生運動所帶來的思潮轉變、巨型科層機構的拆解與權力下放、戰時軍用技術的民用化，以及消費主義對大眾日常生活的全面滲透，使得全球的社會、經濟、政治、文化都經歷了一場巨大的結構調整。於十九世紀與二十世紀早期產生的古典社會學，越來越難以處理今日高度仰賴資訊、符號與媒介技術的後工業社會運作模式。這門課旨在探討知識經濟、網絡社會、全球文化工業與數位化生活世界的交織現象，並分析訊息、影像與符號生產，如何在後工業社會中成為價值創造、社會控制與主體形塑的重要節點。
本課程預計將透過閱讀以下四本著作(部分節選)，來幫助修課同學能對當代社會有個總括性的理解：

1.
Manuel Castells 的《網絡社會的崛起》，被視為當代表述後工業社會轉型的經典著作。Castells提出「網絡社會」的概念，主張自1970年代以來，以資訊技術為基礎的經濟與社會結構正在全球範圍內重組。分析了資訊科技、全球化與靈活資本主義如何改變勞動、空間與權力的形式，並強調網絡作為社會組織的核心邏輯。

2.
Scott Lash 與 Celia Lury 的《全球文化工業──物的媒介化》在後福特主義與數位時代的新條件上，試圖延續Adorno與Horkheimer的文化工業批判，探討文化產品除了作為一種語意載體之外，如何更進一步的作為感官經驗與物性(thing)的載體。

3.
Jean Baudrillard 的《符號政治經濟學批判》，則透過對使用價值與交換價值之間張力的分析，指出後工業時代的符號生產消費模式與工業時代勞動生產消費模式的關鍵差異，並批判當代社會中符號與真實的「擬仿」邏輯。

4.
東浩紀的《動物化的後現代：御宅族如何影響日本社會》從日本次文化現象出發，探討後現代主體的慾望、逃避與文化消費形式，以及其與數位技術、資訊社會之間的關係。
透過這四本著作的閱讀，期望能讓修課同學掌握後工業社會與網絡資本主義的關鍵理論，了解生活中那些表面作為文化的事物背後的政治經濟學基礎，以及符號如何成為控制與生產主體的工具。並透過案例幫助建立分析文化商品、影像與資訊的初步能力，為將來從事傳播研究、文化研究、或社會變遷研究建立基礎。

無論是對「網紅經濟」、「虛擬偶像」、「御宅文化」等現象感到好奇，或是想進一步理解我們所處的媒介社會如何影響人與人之間的關係，以及我們對美好社會的想像，這門課都將結合理論與案例分析，讓修課同學們能批判性的理解後工業社會中的生產模式變遷、技術中介，以及文化與政治經濟的再生產模式。

Since the ideological changes brought about by the student movement in the late 1960s, the dismantling and decentralization of giant bureaucratic institutions, the civilianization of wartime military technology, and the comprehensive penetration of consumerism into the daily lives of the public, the global society, economy, politics, and culture have experienced a huge structural adjustment. Classical sociology, which emerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is increasingly unable to deal with today's post-industrial society that relies heavily on information, symbols and media technologies. This course aims to explore the intertwined phenomena of knowledge economy, network society, global cultural industry and digital living world, and analyze how the production of information, images and symbols has become an important node in value creation, social control and subject formation in post-industrial society.
This course is expected to help students gain a general understanding of contemporary society by reading the following four works (partial excerpts):

1.
Manuel Castells's "The Rise of the Network Society" is regarded as a classic contemporary statement on the transformation of post-industrial society. Castells proposed the concept of "network society" and argued that since the 1970s, economic and social structures based on information technology have been reorganized on a global scale. It analyzes how information technology, globalization and flexible capitalism change forms of labor, space and power, and emphasizes the core logic of networks as social organizations.

2.
Scott Lash and Celia Lury's "Global Culture Industry—The Mediatization of Objects" attempts to continue Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of the cultural industry in the new conditions of post-Fordism and the digital era, exploring how cultural products, in addition to being a carrier of semantics, can further serve as carriers of sensory experience and things.

3.
Jean Baudrillard's "Critique of the Political Economy of Symbols" analyzes the tension between use value and exchange value, points out the key differences between the symbolic production and consumption model of the post-industrial era and the labor production and consumption model of the industrial era, and criticizes the "mimetic" logic of symbols and reality in contemporary society.

4.
Hiroki Azuma's "Animalized Postmodernity: How Otakus Influence Japanese Society" starts from the phenomenon of Japanese subculture and explores the desire, escape and cultural consumption forms of postmodern subjects, as well as its relationship with digital technology and information society.
Through the reading of these four works, we hope that students in the course will be able to master the key theories of post-industrial society and network capitalism, understand the political economic foundation behind those things in life that appear to be cultural, and how symbols become tools for controlling and producing subjects. And through cases, it helps to establish the preliminary ability to analyze cultural commodities, images and information, and lays the foundation for future communication research, cultural research, or social change research.

Whether you are curious about phenomena such as the "Internet celebrity economy", "virtual idols", and "otaku culture", or you want to further understand how the media society we live in affects the relationships between people and our imagination of a better society, this course will combine theory and case analysis to enable students to critically understand the changes in production models, technological intermediaries, and reproduction modes of culture and political economy in post-industrial society.

Manuel Castells 著，夏鑄九、王志弘 等譯，2001，《網絡社會的崛起》。北京：社會科學文獻出版社

Scott Lash、Celia Lury 著，要新東 譯，2010，《全球文化工業──物的媒介化》。北京：社會科學文獻出版社

Jean Baudrillard 著，夏瑩 譯，2009，《符號政治經濟學批判》。南京：南京大學出版社

東浩紀 著，褚炫初 譯，2012，《動物化的後現代：御宅族如何影響日本社會》。台北：大藝

Written by Manuel Castells, translated by Xia Zhujiu, Wang Zhihong and others, 2001, "The Rise of the Network Society". Beijing: Social Sciences Literature Press

Scott Lash and Celia Lury, translated from East Asia, 2010, "Global Culture Industry—The Mediatization of Objects". Beijing: Social Sciences Literature Press

Written by Jean Baudrillard, translated by Xia Ying, 2009, "Critique of Symbolic Political Economy". Nanjing: Nanjing University Press

Written by Dong Haoji, translated by Chu Xuanchu, 2012, "Animalized Postmodernity: How Otaku Influences Japanese Society". Taipei: Dayi