THEME SESSION ON HUMAN POTENTIAL AND THE INFORMATION
SOCIETY AT THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 39TH
EUROPEAN CONGRESS DUBLIN, AUGUST 23-27 1999

We are organising a theme session at the forthcoming European Regional
Science Association Congress in Dublin 23rd-27th August 1999, on
'Human Potential and the Information Society'. As a result we are
therefore calling for papers to fit into this session, and for a
possible book to be prepared subsequently. Please find below a
detailed outline of the topics to be covered in the theme.

If you are interested in submitting paper for this theme session
please submit an abstract to Prof Andrew Gillespie at CURDS before the
18th December. All participants will subsequently need to register for
the conference with the ERSA, and unfortunately we cannot provide any
support with travel costs or conference fees. For further details on
the conference see http://www.ucd.ie/~economic/rsa/index.html

The overarching theme of the session is to explore the implications of
the Information Society for employment, skills, learning and
knowledge, within a regional development framework.

The session will be organised around five main themes:

1  DEFINING THE INFORMATION SOCIETY AND ITS INTERFACE
    WITH HUMAN POTENTIAL

The Information Society means many different things to different
people. In this thematic session we want to focus on the human
dimension, but in this regard is the IS a framework that makes sense
of the many changes taking place in employment, in learning and in
social interaction? How does the concept of the IS affect the way we
view processes affecting human capital and regional labour markets?

2  THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF
    KNOWLEDGE WORK(ERS)

Central to much of the debate over the emergence of the Information
Society and parallel notions such as the knowledge economy is the role
of the knowledge worker. Such 'symbolic analysts' appear to be the
winners in the new economy, but is this tendency unambiguous? Papers
for this theme should explore changes in the nature of knowledge work,
in the way in which particular forms of knowledge are created in
specific places, and the consequences for the creation of 'competitive
locations'.

3  (RE) SKILLING THE LOWER SKILLED FOR THE INFORMATION 
    SOCIETY

The counterparts to the knowledge workers are the low skilled workers
in manufacturing and services who are also seeing major changes in
their work, often in the reduction of job opportunities but also in
the transformation of work and where it is undertaken. Policymakers
often cite IS as an opportunity for reskilling or creating new forms
of work opportunity, and papers in this theme could look at the
process of facilitating people into new forms of employment, the
experiences of the low skilled in the IS, or the changing geography of
low skilled information-processing work.

4  USING IT TO OVERCOME THE PROBLEMS OF PERIPHERALITY IN LEARNING AND
    KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION

Knowledge is often viewed as being primarily metropolitan in origin,
and core urban regions are seen as being rich in opportunities for
knowledge acquisition. Peripheral and rural areas seek to improve
their access to knowledge through policy interventions and ICTs
feature strongly in such attempts to overcome peripherality. One
particular area in which ICTs are being applied is in the delivery of
education and training with much experimentation around the idea of
the virtual university. Papers could examine any aspects of IT being
used to overcome peripherality both between and within regions.

5  REGIONAL CASE STUDIES 

Finally we would like to include regional case studies of the way in
which the information society is developing with respect to the human
capital dimension and/or policy responses or initiatives.

If you are interested in presenting a paper which fits with one ore
more of these themes, please submit a title and abstract, preferably
by email, to Professor Gillespie, CURDS, University of Newcastle

Professor Andrew Gillespie
Executive Director
Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU, UK
Tel. +44 (0)191 222 7731
Fax. +44 (0)191 232 9259
Internet: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~ncurds/


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