Introduction

General framework

"Resources are not, they become" This old motto expresses the impetus behind the programme 'Society and the Electronic Highway'. The societal implications of the developments in information technology are seen in the context of changes that are taking place in society at large. First and foremost among those changes is the emergence of the information society, in which production and employment are increasingly geared to the development of information but even more so to the creation of knowledge. The social structure of society is also undergoing major change. Various processes - the flexibilization, feminization, upgrading, and ageing of society but also the stronger multicultural presence and the shifting sense of what it means to be economically inactive - open up more opportunities for an 'active society'. This means greater scope for combining activities such as work, care for dependants, leisure, and study. These changes have to be seen in connection with the role of information and computer technol ogy (ICT). Not only does ICT have an impact on society, but social forces also influence technological development; the relationship is reciprocal. The relations between ICT and society show up at various levels. Besides changes at the micro level - households and companies - changes may also be expected at the meso level of sectors or regions as well as at the macro level, i.e. in society at large.

Changes in ICT and society offer a framework for developing the programme 'Society and the Electronic Highway'. This is deliberately stated in the active voice. The programme does not call for research on a clearly defined and static phenomenon. Instead, it will entail a dynamic response to issues that arise in the information society as it unfolds.

Preparations

The priority research programme ties in with the National Action Programme 'Electronic Highways' (NAP) of the Dutch government. It is being worked out in detail through consultation with the participating ministries. The programme for research and knowledge transfer is clustered around the following themes: Labour, Industry, Spatial Planning and Logistics, Welfare and Culture, Data and Information, and Education. To flesh out each of these themes, a series of programming studies has been initiated. Around this initiative, priority has been given to the following tasks:

• to make an adequate set of data/indicators available by starting up supplementary collection of data;
• to conduct empirical social-science research on the current state of affairs and on the expectations for the future;
• to widely disseminate the research results among the (potential) users of that material.

Activities

Research and the other activities carried out within the programme fall into the following categories:

Scope and content

The relation between society and the electronic highway is obviously extremely complex. Therefore, in view of the constraints of time and money, certain topics have been assigned priority. The ranking is based on the scope, perspective, and concrete research questions covered by each topic.

First, the programme covers organizational, labour market, and socio-cultural developments. The approaches take an independent course and are based on the preparatory programming studies on 'industry', 'labour', and 'welfare and culture'. In addition, there are also some important ancillary approaches. The latter cut across the main lines of approach. They are concerned with resources that strongly influence the conditions, options, and restrictions with respect to participation in the ICT-activities. The ancillary approaches concern education, spatial developments, and data and information. These topics are derived from the programming studies 'spatial planning and logistics', 'data and information', and 'education'.

Within the approaches, certain issues are subsequently selected for their special importance from a societal and scientific point of view. The perspectives in question are:

• possible new forms of industry and labour;
• accessibility and distribution
• social transformations

Questions have been formulated which deal specifically with these three perspectives. In some cases, the questions treat a single perspective, in other cases multiple perspectives. Room is explicitly left for questions that go beyond a mono-disciplinary approach. Multi-disciplinary research promotes the integration of knowledge coming from each of the various main and ancillary approaches. The following themes offer a substantive guideline.

Besides looking at the issue in terms of content, it is also necessary to look at it in terms of infrastructure. From that angle, interest is mainly focused on the provision of information with respect to the research programme. On the one hand, this concerns the information required to answer the research questions as well as the information produced by the programme. On the other hand, it is also related to a methodological question: to what extent does the accepted means of organizing (primary) data still satisfy the demands that (research on) the information society poses?

The research projects emanating from the programme will for the most part use data that is currently dispersed to a greater or lesser degree over various databases and data-processing centres. In addition, various research projects will be able to make use of the same (dispersed) databases. This is one reason to arrange for central storage of all information that is needed to answer the research questions; this means establishing a centralized ICT information system. That effort involves co-operation with various (primary) data-collecting agents. Besides making essential data available for research from a central point, the ICT information system can serve as a repository for the new primary databases and the processed files created in the course of the investigations. The results of the programme can then be made readily available to third parties. As things are now shaping up, this ICT databank could also create an important basis for additional research during and after the programme activities.

Besides the creation of the ICT information system, an ICT monitor will report periodically on the most crucial developments in the field of ICT and the information society. This monitor is also part of the digital information system itself. The objectives of the monitor are to create a joint frame of reference for the various parts of the programme, to improve the quality of information about ICT available to the public, and to stimulate further research.

More information about the Priority Research Programme may be requested from: