[Air-L] digital society instead of info soc?

[Ren Reynolds]

Petr,
Having been on the edge of similar discussions for the last few years (I've been on the IGF / OECD / Council of Europe policy circuit) the conscious decision process is probably at once trivial and complex. 

It is my guess that with the change in role of commissioner Reading there was a lot of discussion about the nature of the agenda. I imagine also that the notion of 'digital' seemed more 'now' as policy makers are often desperate to give the impression that they are in touch with what is going on 'on the street'. Loaded into this each stakeholder would have read into 'information' and 'digital' all kinds of values that they felt represented their position and the position that they wanted to project for the EU for the future. 

I know this is very meta but the details are probably now lost as much of the detailed work of actors in influencing such positions tends to occur in un-documented meetings in corridors and bars.

Sorry if this is a ridiculously simple analysis that blindingly obvious. What I can say from first had is most intergovernmental policy meetings that I've attended are excruciatingly boring :)

ren

On 19 Mar 2011, at 12:36, Petr Lupac wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am teaching Information Policy course and writing dissertation thesis on
> the sociotechnical construction of information society - and I got into
> interesting question: 
> 
> what stands behind EU information policy moving from information society
> concept in iEurope initiatives (2000-2010) to digital society concept in
> Digital Agenda for Europe (2010-2020)? 
> 
> Does anyone here have a clue? Is that because original
> information-society-based iEurope project went pretty unsuccesfull compared
> to its original goals so they need a new term? Or can it be that the
> European Comittee wants to move away from using the terms loaded by academic
> disputes? Or is it just using the new, theoretically disembedded term so
> they can defend themselves by broad scope of interpretation possibilities?
> Or is there a new theoretical tradition working with the term "digital
> society" which Eu is refering to implicitly and I haven't noticed yet?
> 
> Any answer helsping me answer would be pretty welcome :)
> 
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
> Petr Lupac M.A.
> Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
> Celetná 20, Prague 1, 116 42, the Czech Republic 
> 
> e-mail> petr.lupac--at--gmail.com
> 
> Office hours Mo 12:30-14:00, Celetná 20, room nr. 114, or by appointment.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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