Scenarios for a Sustainable Information Society Strategy for the Mediterranean Region
- 1. Scenarios for a Sustainable Information Society Strategy for the Mediterranean Region Jesse Marsh Atelier Studio Associato [email_address] www.atelier.it
- 2. Globalisation Three main centres of power: USA European Union South-East Asia Sources of competitiveness in the global economy: Systemic technological capacity Access to a large, integrated, affluent market Differential between production costs and market prices Political capacity to steer growth strategies The new international division of labor : Producers of high value , based on informational labor ; Producers of high volume , based on lower-cost labor ; Producers of raw materials , based on natural endowments ; Redundant producers, reduced to devalued labor … From Manuel Castells, “The Rise of the Network Society”
- 3. Technology Definitions from The American Heritage Dictionary, Microsoft Bookshelf 1. a. The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives. B. The scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. 2. Anthropology. The body of knowledge available to a civilization that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials. A humourous invention for a fork-pen that allows employees to work during lunch. A material object produced for an industrial objective (shipping wine), transformed by social practice.
- 4. Creativity of milieu From Charles Landry/Comedia, “Helsinki: Towards a Creative City, Seizing the Opportunity and Maximising Potential”
- 10. An example: tourism What are people buying from other people? In relation to sustainable well-being, in increasing order of local added value and not considering getting there... Nice pictures of the natives “ Redundant producers, reduced to devalued labour” A week on the beach “ Producers of raw materials, based on natural endowments” Cheap carpets, ceramics, etc. “ Producers of high volume, based on lower-cost labour” New knowledge about other cultures “ Producers of high value, based on informational labour”
- 11. Knowledge Economies KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION KNOWLEDGE “ MINING” CENTRUM PERIPHERIA MEDITERRANEA Metaphor: patents per year of T. A. Edison Metaphor: mining gold in the Mekong river Raw Material: Capital Resources Raw Material: Cultural Resources Transforming “embedded knowledge” into global niche market products Creating “new knowledge” for global mass market products
- 12. Policy directions The promotion of open local networks which can interlink different types of actors “ Political capacity to steer growth strategies” Emphasize cultural added value rather than lower cost of labour “ Differential between production costs and market prices” Integration of electronic commerce and international networks with local realities “ Access to a large, integrated, affluent market” Diffusion of media and communicational competence for bottom-up empowerment “ Systemic technological capacity”
- 13. Enabling trends INFORMATION COMMUNICATION PRODUCT PROCESS SECTORIAL INTEGRATED HOMOGENEITY MOLTEPLICITY LINEAR CYCLICAL COORDINATION ANIMATION EVOLUTION RUPTURE