Published Under the Garamond Imprint The new century promises to be a roller coaster ride fueled by rapidly changing information and communications technologies (ICTs). With the capacity for the almost instant transfer of digital information across and beyond our planet, commonly held notions of distance and speed, as well as our understanding of the nature and meaning of interpersonal contact are being challenged and redefined. Many believe that the very structural underpinnings of society will be transformed. This book reflects each contributor's vision of the future, visions that range from the enthusiastic and hopeful to the pessimistic and fearful. The editors' purpose is to alert readers to what lies ahead in the new information society, and to help unravel the public policy implications of the changes wrought by information and communications technologies. A major concern of this book is whether states are able to provide the necessary balance between the often competing priorities of global business and the interests of individuals and groups of citizens. For example, are traditional inter-state boundaries and borders becoming too eroded, espectially in the South, as a result of globalization? Whatever role governments are to play, it is inevitable that balance will only be achieved through active citizen participation, no longer limited by geographic constraints.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Perspectives on the Information Society Forthcoming Features: Information and Communications Technologies and the Sociology of the Future - Peter Golding Illusions of Perfect Information and Fantasies of Control in the Information Society - Dwayne Winseck Software Industry, Religious Nationalism, and Social Movements in India: Aspects of Globalization? - Ramaswami Harindranath Labouring to Be a Citizen: Trade Unions, Public Interest and Cyber-Populism in India - Paula Chakravartty Imagining the Knowledge-Based Economy: Soon-to-be Labour Force Entrants Predict the Future of Work - Roma Harris and Margaret Ann Wilkinson Market Knowledge and the Good Citizen - Richard Maxwell Neo-Liberalizing Welfare: Politics and Information Technology in a New Era of Governance - G. Dean Barry Defining the Canadian DNA Data Bank: A Sociological Perspective - Neil Gerlach ICTs in Dutch Schools: Problems, Prospects and Promises - Leen d'Haenens, Madelon Kokhuis and Cindy von Summeren Part II: Competing Interests: Censorship and Access to Information International Communication and the Extremist Right - John Downing The Harm of Hate Propaganda - Hilliard Aronovitch Censorship in Library Collection Development Practices and Civic Participation: A Theoretical Approach - Juris Dilevko Having a Cow: Reaction to 'Veggie Libel' Laws and the Oprah Trials - Diana Knott Risk and the Internet: Perception and Reality - Eric A. Zimmer and Christopher D. Hunter Part III: Concentration of Ownership in the Information World Universal Access in IHAC and NIIAC: Transformed Narrative and Meaning in Information Policy - Martin Dowding Saving Books from the Market: Price Maintenance Policies in the United States and Europe - Laura Miller Books and Commerce in an Age of Virtual Capital: The Changing Political Economy of Bookselling - Jon Bekken Copyright and Citizenship - Michael Rushton National Public Radio: The Case for Normative Mission in the Marketplace - Michael McCauley Part IV: Citizenship and Democracy Human Rights in the Information Society: Civic Participation in Shaping the Future - Cees Hamelink Networks for Social Knowledge: The Anti-NAFTA Challenge - Sophia Huyer Globalization, Information Society and Social Movement - Marc Lemire Web Sites of Resistance: Internetworking and Civil Society - Kelly O'Neill The Citizen's Right to Communicate - William F. Birdsall and Merrilee Rasmussen Crossing the Great Divide: Connecting Citizens to Government in New South Wales, Australia - Jan Houghton and Linda Tsiu-Shuang Chin Jacques and Jill at VPL: Citizenship and the Use of the Internet at Vancouver Public Library - Ellen Balka and Brian J. Peterson Does a Networked Society Foster Participatory Democracy or Is Commitment to Place-Based Community Still a Necessity for Civic Engagement? - Mary Wilson Access to U.S. Federal Government Information for People with Disabilities: An Analysis of the Legal Requirements, Interpretations, and Implications - Kimberley Lauffer Remapping the Canadian North: Nunavut, Communications and Inuit Participatory Development - Gail Guthrie Valaskakis Bush and Bureaucrats: Women's Civic Participation from the Australian Outback - Lyn Simpson, Leonie Daws, Leanne Wood, Josephine Previte The Contributors Index   "