The Information Society in Europe: Work and Life in an Age of Globalization / Edition 336

by Ken Ducatel, Juliet Webster, Werner Herrmann, Gerhard Bosch, Pierre Chambat

Overview

For four decades now, information and communication technologies have been seen as principal drivers of socio-economic change. Stimulated in recent years by the Internet, the National Information Infrastructure, and European Information Society strategies, the “Information Society” has undergone a new wave of developments. In its new form, the Information Society directly affects the everyday lives of citizens, provoking concerns about the future of work, information overload, access to continuing education, surveillance, and privacy.

This volume examines a wide range of issues at stake in the European Union, from employment and the labor market, to the domestication of technologies in households, to larger implications for political processes and democracy. Extending comparisons to other industrialized countries, it demonstrates that the Information Society is far too diverse and rich to be typified in simplistic dichotomies such as information “haves” and “have nots” and that simple upbeat or pessimistic responses to the new technologies are surely false messengers for the future.

The authors discern general social trends and patterns in the way that these very important technologies already affect our lives and work. But they find there is still considerable room to use the technologies as a positive force for social change or, equally, to fail to take up any positive opportunities.

This book helps broaden and inform communication technology debates worldwide and will be of interest to academics, students, industrialists, policymakers, and anyone who wishes to better understand the impacts of the new Information Society in Europe and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847695904
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2000
Series:	Critical Media Studies: Institutions, Politics, and Culture
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.84(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Ken Ducatel is currently seconded to the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Sevilla, Spain, from his post as senior lecturer in the Management of New Technology at PREST, the University of Manchester, UK.

Juliet Webster is a research fellow in the employment research unit at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

Werner Herrmann is unit head in the directorate general for education and culture of the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, and visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Information Infrastructures or Societies? Part 2 Part I: Space, Economy, and the Global Information Society Chapter 3 Regional Development in the Information Society Chapter 4 The Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Large Firms: Impacts and Policy Issues Chapter 5 Small Firms in Europe's Developing Information Society Part 6 Part II: Work and the European Information Society Chapter 7 New Organizational Forms in the Information Society Chapter 8 Today's Second Sex and Tomorrow's First? Women and Work in the European Information Society Chapter 9 Toward the Learning Labor Market Part 10 Part III: Life in the Information Society Chapter 11 Health and the Information Society Chapter 12 Information and Communication Technologies in Distance and Lifelong Learning Chapter 13 Information and Communication Technologies and Everyday Life: Individual and Social Dimensions Chapter 14 Computer-Aided Democracy: The Effects of Information and Communication Technologies on Democracy Part 15 References

Editorial Reviews

This book illustrates neatly the broadness and pervasiveness of the concept of ‘Information Society’ by bringing together a variety of contributions on social and societal aspects of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). The flexibility of ICT use remains a characteristic emphasis of the European debate, which has been particularly rich in insights applicable to the global context. This timely volume brings to the forefront the underlying social and societal choices that face policy makers—and, for that matter, businesses—in this information age.

Luc Soete

An important collection that demonstrates why European scholars have taken a leading role in the debate about the social dimensions of the revolution in information and communication technologies. Looking beyond the technology of the day, the contributions address enduring issues of significance to policy and practice in Europe and the world.

William H. Dutton

There are three major strengths. First, it addresses IS topics that have been neglected, including work, healthcare, learning, democracy, and gender. Second, the contributors come from various fields, including geographers, sociologists, education and technology specialists. Third, it is a goldmine of potential research topics. This book can be used in many disciplinary classes and also interdisciplinary seminars.

Progress In Human Geography

I recommend that Americans read this book to better understand why Europeans resist following their American counterparts into a homogenized technological world.

Journal of Communication

American and European scholars of political science, communications and education, many of whom participated in the European Commission's High Level Expert Group on the information society from which this book stems, introduce the relationship between technological change and social transformation. Topics covered include the use of information technology by large and small businesses, women's roles in the European information society, and the effects of these technologies on democracy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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