Mapping out the transition toward information societies: Social nature, growth, and policies

This research thesis sheds lights on different aspects of the transition toward information societies. It consists of a collection of interrelated studies that analyze in more rigorous terms three main and complementary aspects of the transition (see Figure below). After and introductory CHAPTER ONE, the consecutive CHAPTER TWO of this thesis looks at the social nature of the current transition toward the information society, which is characterized by a diffusion process that is known as digital divide. This chapter focuses on the socio-demographic characteristics of the transition, and characterizes its bottlenecks, such as the cost-income relation of ICT and users, as well as its opportunities, such as the opportunity to fight long-standing gender inequalities. CHAPTER THREE focuses not only on equality, but also on growth of the world’s information and communication capacity in absolute terms. The chapter consists of two sections that quantify the magnitude and growth of information in the information society, measured directly in bits and bytes. This provides insights into the speed and general pattern of the transition from analog to digital information processing in society. Both chapters combined provide complementary insights into what have been traditionally the two main pillars of socio-economic development: equity and growth. In this case the focus is set on the equality and growth of technologically mediated information. Various particularities of the transition become evident, such as the exponential rates of change of the transition, the all-pervasiveness of ICT in the social realm, and the unequal diffusion process. The final CHAPTER FOUR studies a concrete example of successful policy making in the digital age that takes these particularities into consideration. The case study focuses on a foresight Delphi exercise aimed at identifying future policy priorities that offered input into the inter-governmental negotiation of an Action Plan in Latin America. It is believed to have been the most extensive online participatory policy-making foresight exercise in the history of intergovernmental processes in the developing world. The process of policy-making in this international multi-stakeholder Delphi embraces the particular characteristics of the transition toward Information Societies by design.