The term society is currently used to cover both a number of political and scientific connotations as well as a variety of associations.
Western society
The development of the Western world has brought with it the emerging concepts of Western culture, politics and ideas, often referred to simply as Western society. Geographically, it covers at the very least the countries of Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand and sometimes also includes South America and Israel. The cultures and lifestyles of all of these stem from Western Europe. They all enjoy relatively strong economies and stable governments, allow freedom of religion, have chosen democracy as a form of governance, favor capitalism and international trade, are heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian values, and have some form of political and military alliance or cooperation.[6]
Information society
Although the concept of information society has been under discussion since the 1930s, in the modern world it is almost always applied to the manner in which information technologies have impacted society and culture. It therefore covers the effects of computers and telecommunications on the home, the workplace, schools, government and various communities and organizations, as well as the emergence of new social forms in cyberspace.[7]
One of the European Union's areas of interest is the Information Society. Here policies are directed towards promoting an open and competitive digital economy, research into information and communication technologies, as well as their application to improve social inclusion, public services and quality of life.[8]
The International Telecommunications Union's World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva and Tunis (2003/2005) has led to a number of policy and application areas where action is required.[9] These include:
- promotion of ICTs for development;
- information and communication infrastructure;
- access to information and knowledge;
- capacity building;
- building confidence and security in the use of ICTs;
- enabling environment;
- ICT applications in the areas of government, business, learning, health, employment, environment, agriculture and science;
- cultural and linguistic diversity and local content;
- media;
- ethical dimensions of the Information Society;
- international and regional cooperation.
Knowledge society
As access to electronic information resources increased at the beginning of the 21st century, special attention was extended from the Information Society to the knowledge society.
In the words of an Irish governmental analysis, "The capacity to manipulate, store and transmit large quantities of information cheaply has increased at a staggering rate over recent years. The digitisation of information and the associated pervasiveness of the Internet are facilitating a new intensity in the application of knowledge to economic activity, to the extent that it has become the predominant factor in the creation of wealth. As much as 70 to 80 percent of economic growth is now said to be due to new and better knowledge."
The Second World Summit on the Knowledge Society, held in Chania, Crete, in September 2009, gave special attention to the following topics:
- business and enterprise computing;
- technology-enhanced learning;
- social and humanistic computing;
- culture, tourism and technology;
- e-government and e-democracy;
- innovation, sustainable development and strategic management;
- service science, management and engineering;
- intellectual and human capital development;
- ICTs for ecology and the Green Economy;
- future prospects for the Knowledge Society;
- technologies and business models for the creative industries.
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