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European Conference on Information Systems 2006, http://www.ecis2006.se/, Goteborg 12-16 June 2006
submission deadline: november 15, 2005,
Living in, and Coping with, the eSociety http://www.ecis2006.se/02_conferencetracks/esociety.html
Track
Chair:
Mike Cushman, London School of Economics
The effects
of ICTs (and particularly internet based ones) on access to services are
contradictory. On the one hand they potentially enhance access to information
and communication for many people who could not access libraries or easily
communicate internationally; but they may also further exclude marginalised
groups who cannot gain physical access to equipment or lack the skills to use
it. For example, while egovernment channels may ease access to services for
people who are housebound through disability or caring responsibilities - those
who cannot utilise these new channels may find existing routes degrade through
insufficient attention and investment. Similarly while customers of e-commerce
gain lower prices, use requires both IT equipment and a credit or debit card.
Those excluded (typically the poorest in society) find they have to pay the
highest prices. This track will focus on experiences and divisions within and
not between states.
The internet
also gives rise to new risks and intensifies existing ones: at a societal level,
the internet provides new channels for the distribution of racist material and
child pornography; at the individual level, people are susceptible to fraud and
identity theft. This track will explore how people understand and manage these
risks and the politics of regulation. The track will also consider
methodological issues of how to investigate these themes and to what extent the
existing IS research techniques equip us to explore them. Possible
topics include (but are not limited to):
• The digital
divide as a cause of social exclusion or as a consequence of
it
• Policies for
the promotion of ICT/media/e- literacy and the effects of
illiteracy
• Policies and
infrastructures for universal ICT access
• Availability
of, and access to, e-Government and e-Health services
• The skills
and resources required for participation in e-society
• Effects of
e-services on reducing or increasing inequality
• The effects
of language, gender, race, disability (physical and mental) or age on the use
of e-services
• Individual
perceptions of internet risks and dangers. and strategies of managing and living
with these risks
• Content
regulation
•
Methodologies for researching the experience of living in the
e-society
Mike Cushman [
mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Research Fellow
Penceil Project
Department of Information
Systems
London School of Economics and Political Science,
Houghton
Street
London WC2A 2AE
Phone: +44
(0)20 7955 7426 Fax: +44 (0)20 7955
7385
http://penceil.lse.ac.uk/