W. Edward Steinmueller

Mobilizing the Information Society comprehensively and critically examines the interaction between social, regulatory, and market developments underlying the growing use of new technologies such as the personal computer and the Internet. Based upon empirical research by an international team, it offers insights needed to understand public policy, corporate strategy, and individual choices taken in response to the deluge of new technological opportunities. A principal theme of Mobilizing the Information Society is that changes are governed by public decisions that establish the institutional framework in which the private sector operates. The quality and value of the information society for the citizen is not the inevitable consequence of market and technological forces. Policy choices, however, that fail to take market and technical influences into account will prove ineffective. The authors lay the foundation for improved theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve desired aims, and more effective policies for mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the information society. Mobilizing the Information Society offers unique insights into the social, economic, and political forces that are structuring the pathway to the information society, and their consequences for businesses and citizens in their everyday lives.

'Mobilizing the Information Society' provides a critical assessment of progress towards the Information Society. It begins from the premise that the construction of the Information Society in Europe is a dynamic process and that the journey towards a society that is so heavily dependent on capacities to generate, distribute, and use digital information is far from straightforward. The book draws upon empirical research generated by researchers based in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy, and France that was originally funded by the European Commission's Fourth Framework Advanced Communication Technologies and Services (ACTS) Programme which ran from 1994 to 1998. This book updates the original research, integrates the results around core themes, and provides an assessment of progress that has been made towards addressing key issues of interest to policy makers, the business community, and technology and service users. The authors lay the foundation for more useful theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve the desired aims, and more effective policies for increasing the benefits and mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the Information Society. 'Mobilizing the Information Society' provides unique insights into the social, economic, and political forces that are structuring the pathway to the Information Society - and its consequences for business and individuals in their everyday lives.