Inclusion and Exclusion in the Information Society

Abstract

Recent policy discourses in Europe strongly emphasise the need to build what is called an ‘inclusive information society’. With the current widespread diffusion and use of ICTs in all domains of everyday life, ICTs are increasingly considered a fundamental and necessary resource for every European citizen, the socio-economic effects of which will resonate across the continent. The strategic goal for Europe in 2010 – worded forcefully by the European Council in its Lisbon strategy – is: ‘… to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (European Council, 2000). While access to ICTs is considered crucial for participation in and enhancing the qualities of that society, there is, at the same time, an accompanying nervousness that it might sow the seeds for a new exclusion, a digital divide quite distanced from the dream of an all inclusive society.