The Information Society: A Global Discourse and its Local Translation into Regional Organizational Practices (original) (raw)

Powerful Dichotomies – Inclusion and exclusion in the Information Society

Power relations take most often a binary form: the established and the outsiders. The relation between the elements of the binary hinges on the boundary that defines and divides them. The book focuses on a specific phase of power relations: the substitution of the boundary articulating the relation for another boundary. The study shows the process by which the new boundary comes to overlap the previous one, modifying yet not eliminating it. In this sense, the book is a study on the inertia of power relations. Kista Science City – A high-tech region in the making “Sweden is to become the first country to be an information society for all.” The IT policy goal was made explicit by the Swedish parliament in March 2000. General access to IT and widespread IT knowledge become key in achieving economic and social goals, such as economic growth, employment, regional development, democracy, justice, and equality. Later that year the City of Stockholm presented the Kista Science City vision. Sweden’s IT policy goal is translated in that vision with the motto “without borders”. Kista is a suburb of Stockholm with a high proportion of residents of immigrant background living on welfare state benefits. The vision aimed at, one, converting the region into a motor of Stockholm’s, and even Sweden’s, economic growth; and two, addressing some of the social problems present in the region, more particularly, unemployment and segregation. Kista’s economic and social divide has increased by 2007. The percentage of people of immigrant background has increased from 59% in year 2000 to 67% in 2006. And although the number of employees in Kista increased by almost 12%, open unemployment among residents rose from 3,1% to 5,5%, figures that look even more sombre for residents of immigrant background. Despite all efforts to the contrary and despite all good intentions, statistics show the gap between ethnic Swedes and people of immigrant descent has, if something, intensified. What are the economic and social processes cementing the divide? Rearticulating extant power relations The book argues that the economic logic inherent to science- and technology-based development projects is part of the reason. The other part is the ubiquity of the ethnic boundary. Science- and technology-based regional development projects are structured along the technology boundary. The techy/non-techy dichotomy marked by the technology boundary comes to determine the value of the activities carried out in Kista Science City. In this framework, power appears to operate in the production of a binary frame for thinking about worth. “Technology” is used to distinguish between attractive and un-attractive customers, educated and un-educated co-workers, relevant and irrelevant education, exclusive and un-desirable localities, appropriate and un-appropriate dwellers. Unsurprisingly, a high-tech region is organized along the technology boundary, shaping social norms and rendering techy people and techy places desirable. When science- and technology-based regional economic development policies are exercised in a historically immigrant suburb, a suburb burdened with unemployment and social welfare dependency, a suburb structured along ethnic lines, the technology boundary weaves together with the ethnic boundary. As a consequence, social norms based on the technology boundary enter into representations of the ”ethnic other” (the “immigrant”) ensuing in an extension of the associations made to “immigrant” category to include that of non-techy. As a result, the project of creating a “science city”, at best, re-produces previous divisions. At worst, it intensifies them by adding yet another disqualifying characteristic to “the immigrant” other – that of low-tech. In a society defined and organized by high-tech and knowledge, the new epithet implies a further loss of social and economic power. The introduction of the technological boundary in a region defined along ethnic lines involves, however, the possibility to destabilise extant power relations. For instance, traditional outsiders get the opportunity to achieve higher status by getting an engineering degree, a strategy several persons in the study were very conscious about. This strategy allows to rub out the “immigrant” category and to undermine the ethnic hierarchy. Ethnographic study The book is based on an ethnographic study of the Kista region. Participant observations as well as over 60 interviews were carried with residents, IT-workers, borough administrators and representatives for the City of Stockholm. The study was initiated within the wider research collaboration “The Network Society from within”, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Continued work was funded by the Tom Hedelius and Jan Wallanders Foundation. The author defended her Ph.D at the Stockholm School of Economics in 2002. During the course of the study, she has worked at KTH and spent 18 months as a visiting scholar in Stanford University. Today she is Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School.

The Internet and the Nordic model of the Information society

Sociedad de la Información y del Conocimiento en los países nórdicos. : Semejanzas y divergencias con el caso español., 2009

The paper discusses the development and integration of the internet in different cultural settings. A special focus is given to the “Nordic” model of the Information Society. The model is compared both other models characterized by high internet-penetration rates and models characterized by lower penetration rates. It is argued that Nordic model is a result of both previous welfare policies, resulting in a homogenous population dominated by a modern well-educated middleclass with a high percentage of women on the labor market, and the extended use of welfare principles in the national IT development-strategies. In the case of Denmark the Public Service Broadcast media also plays a significant role. Citation for published version (APA): Finnemann, N. O. (2009). The Internet and the Nordic model of the Information Society. In M. C. Herreros (Ed.), Sociedad de la Información y del Conocimiento en los países nórdicos. : Semejanzas y divergencias con el caso español. (pp. 196-222). Barcelona: Barcelona: Gedisa.

Information society visions in the Nordic countries

Telematics and Informatics, 2000

This paper analyses the information society visions put forward by the governments/administrations of the Nordic countries and compares them to the visions advanced at the EU-level. The paper suggests that the information society visions constitute a kind of common ideology for almost the whole political spectrum although it is characterised by a high degree of neo-liberal thinking. It is further argued that there is no distinctly Nordic model for an information society.

Exploring the information society: experiences from Finland

Explorer la société de l'information : expériences finlandaises.-Cet article examine les caractéristiques de l'informatisation en Finlande. Il s'agit de comprendre comment les citoyens ordinaires emploient les technologies de l'information et comment ils font l'expérience du développement de la société de l'information. Selon des données empiriques, les cultures locales aussi bien que la vie quotidienne demeurent en grande partie inchangées. C'est principalement dans l'entreprise que s'introduit la société de l'information par l'incorporation des technologies numériques dans les pratiques du travail (ordinateur, téléphone mobile). Les campagnes publicitaires massives de grandes sociétés du secteur des TIC contribuent à diffuser l'idée qu'existe déjà une société nouvelle fondée sur l'usage des nouvelles technologies. Cependant, cela n'est pas avéré pour l'expérience partagée par la majorité des citoyens telle qu'elle ressort de l'enquête de l'auteur.

Social Contradictions in Informational Capitalism

2002

Along with the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), work processes are becoming ever more knowledge intensive. In keeping with this trend, the number of informational (or knowledge) workers in Finland has more than tripled from 12% in 1988 to 39% in 2000. What makes the Finnish case unique and interesting is the exceptional speed with which the information sector of the economy has grown. A few years after facing the most severe economic recession in its history in the early 1990s, Finland is now considered to have an advanced information economy. However, our empirical analysis-based on survey data from 1988, 1994, and 2000-yields a somewhat more critical picture of the Finnish information society than what usually comes across in the mainstream media. The opportunities for social equality offered by the growth of informational work are far more limited than was the case with the transition from agricultural to industrial production.

Reconsidering the Finnish Model – Information Society Policy and Modes of Governance

Trames. Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2008

During the last two decades, Finland has experienced an extensive societal transformation in which the Nordic welfare state model has been challenged by economic turbulences and globalisation. At the same time, the building of an information society, in which there is a growing emphasis on economic competitiveness and knowledge-intensive production, has become a central political metaobjective and formed a new national strategy. This article examines governance changes related to these transformations. The analysis shows that the Finnish experience combines both strong corporatist and market modes of governance but, at the same time, there has been a significant increase in social inequality related to the growing market governance. Such inequalities have been mostly neglected in recent discussions of the Finnish 'model' or 'miracle'. The corporatist system shows a limited capacity towards deliberative and more inclusive approaches, but it also tends to merge with educational modes of governance.

Contradictions of information societies/Les contradicions de la societat de la informació

Quaderns del Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya, 2005

The rhetoric, practice, technology development, and policy initiatives of today are no better aligned with each other when it comes to fostering inclusive and beneficial information societies than they were twenty-five years ago when UNESCO’s Many Voices, One World groundbreaking report was published. Many of the same contradictions, albeit in different forms, that were highlighted in the MacBride Report are present today. There have been substantial changes in technology, the globalization debate has subsumed the transnationalization debate, and a wider range of interested stakeholders is explicitly acknowledged. However, the aspirations of ensuring that ‘communication’ or ‘information societies’ develop in the interests of all remain elusive.