Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko
Department of Local Government Studies
University of Tampere

A paper prepared for the session 'Rhetorics and Politics of the Information Society' in the Crossroads in Cultural Studies, Second International Conference, June 28 - July 1, 1998, Tampere.

Making Sense of IS Policy

Searching for Knowledge-Based Evidence for the Finnish Information Society Policy Programmes at Different Institutional Levels

Abstract

The idea of the information society is a relatively new one. Especially after the development of Internet and the influential policy formulations made by the US Government in the early 1990's, this idea became a key policy factor in most of the developed countries.

There are several reasons to ask on what kind of evidence the policy programmes developed at national, regional and local levels are based. Are there any coherent 'theories' behind the 'rhetorics' at all? Is the Information Society the only card we have left to play? To summarize, my aim is to study what are the premises the Finnish IS strategies and policies are based on.

Based on the analysis of several strategy and policy documents I can conclude (a) that reports prepared for the strategy process provide a relatively comprehensive view on general IS trends and developments and their challenge to Finland. However, at the same time there is empirical evidence to show (b) that the knowledge base of the IS strategies and policies at local, regional and national levels is shaky. (c) The strategy documents are characterized by one-sided value judgements of more or less neo-liberal ideas on the necessity to adapt to global competition, IS developments and restructuring. Certainly some megatrends were identified, but (d) there were no analyses of why and how these processes evolve and affect us, what policy options we have, and what the economic, social, and cultural consequences of these 'necessities' are.

Tampere, June 29, 1998
Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko