The society of information: an analysis of the e-commerce expansion in Brazil

Abstract

The subject of this paper consists on a very actual study’s field and research in Geography, which reflects in quite a few geographers authors’ bibliographies that discuss e-commerce in Brazil. In this sense, this paper is intent to examine the implications of technological innovations in the composition of economic activity, in human life and in the transformation of the physical structures in virtual structures. Also, this paper discusses the expansion and dissemination of electronic commerce in the country and all over the world, reflecting about the socio-spatial relations related with it. Therefore, we seek to understand new forms of commerce and consumption in the network age. Seen that, this research aims to analyze the practice of e-commerce in Brazil over this last decade and reflect about this information society, as some authors defines it, with the example of Castells (2001) and Telefonica (2002). Thus, it is possible to verify that electronic commerce is growing exponentially, year after year, transforming social relations, productive and spatial, resulting also from the spread of computers and internet access.