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IGU Commission on the Geography of Information
Society Panel |
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The Geographical Dimension of the Information
Society |
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to List of Themes |
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(Last updated:
October 24th, 2005) |
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The Geographical Dimension
of the Information Society |
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Presented by: |
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International Geographical
Union's Commission on the Geography of Information
Society |
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Panel Members: |
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Aharon
Kellerman, IGU Commission on the Geography of the Information
Society |
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Emmanuel
Eveno, University
of Toulouse-Le Mirail, GRESOC, France |
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Philippe
Vidal, Universite
Le Havre, France |
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Maria
Paradiso, Universita
del Sannio, Italy |
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Henry
Bakis, Universite
de Montpellier II et UMR ESPACE, France |
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The Geography of the Information
Society: An Overview |
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Aharon Kellerman,
Professor, Department
of Geography, University of Haifa, Israel, and
Chair, IGU Commission on the Geography of the
Information Society, |
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The geography of the information society is
one of the newest in human geography, and as
its name suggests, it attempts to explore and
study the territorial dimension of the information
society. Its general roots may be easily identified
in the tremendous growth of information technology
(IT). Within geography the field has grown out
of telecommunications geography, so that the
emphasis has moved from the study of "pipelines" to
the study of their contents. The origins of the
geographical study of telecommunications and
information geographies were in France in the
1960s, with some beginnings also in the USA,
followed later by the UK and Israel. The field
received recognition by the International Geographical
Union (IGU) through commissions devoted first
to the study of the geography of telecommunications
and later to the study of the geography of the
information society. |
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The change from an accent on telecommunications
to one on information has occurred in the mid-1990s,
side by side with the introduction of the Internet
and the massive adoption of mobile telephones.
The study of the geography of the information society
has several dimensions. The first deals with information
per se, namely the locations of IT centers, and
the locations of information production, hosting,
transmission, and consumption. The second deals
with the global mapping of information society
(e-Atlas), and the third deals with various societal
aspects, such as urban and regional planning, mobility,
security, and real space/cyberspace relations. |
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The eAtlas Perspective: Territorial
Dimensions of the Information Society |
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Emmanuel Eveno, Professor |
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University of Toulouse-Le
Mirail, GRESOC, France |
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In the first times of the emergence of the "Information
Society”, the public policies were focused
on national and global scales. The trivial
theory was that which evoked the disappearance
(or the death, the collapses) of the distances,
the realization of a kind of "total/global
village". |
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It appears obvious from now on that far from
spreading itself on a uniform model, the "Information
Society" is plural. It is articulated on the
territories of the everyday life, on regional
and local scales... It thus relates to the local
communities and this as much in the developed
countries that those less developed. |
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However, faced to the theory of the “Global
Village”, we generally miss objectivity for the
comprehension from what occurs within the territories.
We miss in particular empirical data. |
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We think that the community of the geographers
has vis-a-vis with this problem a responsibility.
It consists to affirm the interest of a geographical
approach and to show it by the production of
an essential tool for the being Digital : an
Atlas of the Information Society. |
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Services Geolocalized in the
European Metropolises: Towards a Possible Inflection
of Urban Mobilities? |
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Philippe Vidal, Maitre
de Conférences, Université, Le Havre, France |
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The articulation between Information and
the Communication Technologies (ICT) and urban
mobilities constitutes a major axis of reflexion
for the geographer-developer. |
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For some time, the problems took a new dimension
under the effect of technical, economic and social
evolutions. Miniaturization of the electronic
components allowing the operators to develop
devices increasingly lighter and multi supports;
the fast equipment of the urban territories in
telecommunications networks without wire (wi-fi
bluetooth); the presence in the metropolises
of trade and administrations allowing to develop
innovating services; and finally the potential
of consumers gathered in these metropolises,
are as many factors around whose projects of
city and projects in the city are worked out. |
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The operators seized the occasion to explore
new economic models, the towns seized the occasion
to develop a innovating urban public action and
the tradesmen seized the occasion to discover
new customers. |
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This article proposes to give a progress report
on new relations established between the city
and ICT. It questions the relation of the consuming
townsman to urbanity in a context where the local
public actors regard the commercial fact as being
factor of space organization and relaunching
of the downtown areas. |
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Integrating the Social Sciences
and Engineering for a Better Information Society:
the Bridging Role of Information Geography |
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Maria Paradiso, Professor,
Universita del Sannio, Centre of Excellence
on Software Technologies and DASES |
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Benevento, Italy |
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Some years ago OECD launched a debate on ‘Rethinking
Social Sciences’ with consequent Declarations of
Lisbon and Vienna (2001, 2002), also sustained
by the EU Commission Research Directorate-General
and UNESCO management. An international framework
called WSIS-the World Social Science Initiative
was established, promoted by the International
Social Science Council, in order to enhance the
relevance of social sciences for policy making.
Similarly, the growing demand of the ICT engineering
in public and private sectors put the question
of the ‘social role’ of engineers often advanced
in several national associational organisation
in the field. From the perspective of policies
for the enhancement of information society, efforts
to cope with policy-making imply integration between
social sciences and engineering knowledge and competence.
This type of integration is argued in this presentation
as necessary for an effective policy-making, which
requires cultural knowledge as well as knowledge
of socio-economic conditions of different areas.
The paper presents and discusses the metaphor of
a bridge between engineering and social sciences
with a specific bridging role provided by the competence
and accumulated knowledge in the field of information
geography. |
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New Territories of the Identity,
ICT Networks, and Cultural Identities - Regional
Minorities and Diasporas |
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Henry Bakis, Professor,
Universite de Montpellier III et UMR ESPACE,
France |
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With the development of the infrastructures
of transportation, of telecommunications and
with the growing usage of telemeetings, the physical
and mental barriers lost of their opacity on
the geographical space. The globalization phenomenon
adds again to the current event of these questions. |
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One will wonder if Internet constitutes a space
where testimonies, practice and claims of Cultural
Identity only show themselves. Or, if Internet
allows the question of the identity of minority
groups to put itself in new terms by the new
usages that it gives rise to ? Which are the
relations between the new means of communications
offered by the ICT and the renewal of cultural
affirmations of different groups ? |
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To convince itself that a relation exists is
easy. It suffices to sail on the net, to note
attendance of this virtual territory (not always
peaceful!). For all the minorities appreciate
the possibilities that TIC offer them and they
are very present on Internet. One was able to
speak for example of Global Diasporas. |
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