Masato Ina

Industrialization and information technology seemed to have broken through the problems of mass society. However, the crisis of democracy only experienced a tempo- rary reprieve, and it could be said that the globalizing modern society has taken on a mass-society aspect. Industrialization and informatization provided methods for social control, but they also entailed the risk of runaway change. Mass society theory began as a social theory that criticized fascism. It was also an argument that checked the risks of democracy and industrialization at a time of social transition, and served as a clue for understanding the transformation of society and civilization. From this viewpoint, this paper will examine the autonomy variables (“accessiblity” and “availablity”) of mass so- ciety theory, criticisms of it, and the “vulnerability” of information network theory. e development of mass society theory will be reexamined, paying attention to the two concepts of “vulnerable” and “vernacular” presented by information network theory. e issue of autonomy control will be compared with the sociological viewpoint of C. Wright Mills and the semiotic viewpoint of Shunsuke Tsurumi, and the grounding of politics and academia will be discussed. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version). is summary was then checked by a native speaker and completed.