‘What social policies now need is a cyber-dimension.
It is not just inequalities that they need to address.
The relationship between cyber-society and the real world
also calls for examination. Real selves and virtual selves will
be a feature of the new society, along with real and virtual
communities and forms of organisation’
(Dale Spender, Nattering on the Net, 1995: 251)
The ESRC Virtual Society? Programme and
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are jointly
funding a one day Conference on the theme of:
Wired Welfare: Setting an Agenda for Social Policy
It will take place on Thursday 13th January 2000 at
the Kings Manor, University of York.
The event is being jointly organised by the
CHP, University of York http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/chp
CIRA, University fo Teesside http://wheelie.tees.ac.uk/CIRA/
Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Glasgow.
The impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
on the social, political and economic structures of modern societies
is now beyond doubt. The magnitude of the debate raging
about both the positive and negative aspects of the new media
bares testament to its transforming qualities.
Its lack of prominence in the field of social policy thus comes as
some surprise. Whilst social policy commentators have sometimes
recognised that ICTs are implicated in changing the
management of liberal democratic welfare states,
even in recent explicit attempts to imagine welfare
futures they have offered little analytic leverage on the
broader implications for social policy of the emergence
and functioning of ICTs.
This one day workshop attempts to make a small contribution
towards opening up a debate about the
implications of ICTs for social policy in the UK.
It does this by focussing on the emergence of a range of issues
around the use of ICTs which potentially offers challenges both to
providers of welfare and its’ recipients. Such challenges include
the: impact of ICTs on the administration and organisation of welfare
services and benefit payments; development of welfare services
partly or wholly delivered by ICTs; potential for ICTs to facilitate the
undermining and circumvention of the power of ‘professionals’
in the delivery of welfare; ability of ICTs to contribute to
self-help welfare through the development of computer mediated
communication; and potential for the creation of a new (digital?)
democratic order in which issues relating to welfare can be
discussed and where citizens potentially can engage
with the decision-making process.
The event will run from 10.00 am until about 5.00 pm
The Provisional Programme includes papers by
Andrew Webster (York) ‘The Social Science of ICTs: What are the Issues?’
Brian Loader (Teesside) ‘Wired Welfare: An Agenda for Change?’
Roger Burrows et al (York) ‘Virtual Community Care?'
Tim Venables (Sussex) ‘SMART Homes: An Evaluation’
Margaret Reid et al. (Glasgow) ‘Telemedicine and the consultation'
John Hudson (York) ‘Informatization and Public Services'
The event is free but places are limited (max 50 people).
If you would like to attend please email
Roger Burrows [log in to unmask] providing
your contact details and a brief outline of your interests
in this area. Lunch will be provided and reasonable
travel costs can be met.
Thanks
Roger Burrows
Reader in Social Policy
Co-Director
Centre for Housing Policy
University of York
Heslington
York Y010 5DD
(01904) 432317
(01904) 432318 (fax)
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/chp/rjb.htm
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