van Dijk (born 1952) is professor emeritus of communication science at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, where he still works.
[2] Van Dijk started his career as a methodologist of critical social research at the end of the 1970s at the University of Utrecht.
The overview focused on economic, sociological, political, cultural, psychological, and legal consequences as well as relevant policy approaches.
[6] From 1999, van Dijk extended and updated his concept in four English editions of The Network Society (1999, 2006, 2012 and 2020).
In the 2020 edition, the new trends are the emergence of artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, Bitcoin and platform economy.
They are force, construction (design), coercion, domination, discipline, dependency, information, persuasion and authority.