A European Way into the global information society

Issue: This article examines the challenge of identifying a way towards a global Information Society that is sustainable. This means a society that adequately balances economic, social, cultural and environmental concerns of the world under a long-term perspective. Clearly a model of development which simply extends current resource-intensive lifestyles of the OECD to the world's population as a whole would threaten both global ecological stability and many local cultures, and eventually pose a threat to social harmony in Europe. Relevance: The present patterns of economic globalization are forcing ever more deregulation, increasingly short-term orientation and an ever faster rate of change, which in some cases makes sustainability yet harder to reach. However, European experience can make a valuable contribution to developing a global sustainable Information Society, and to the work of policymaking bodies around the world.