Information Society and the Welfare State

Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the Finnish model. This is equally dynamic in technological and economic terms, but combines the information society with the welfare state. This text studies what the Finnish model really is. The authors analyse the factors that have enabled Nokia to become the world's leading telecommunications company, for example, and Linux to become the biggest challenger to Microsoft in the operating systems market. They discuss the development of Nokia and the Finnish innovation model, with important lesssons for businesses and national technology policies. However, the Finnish model's most radical and interesting feature is its attempt to combine technological and economic success with social justice and equality.

... this is an important piece of work that contains an impressive range of imformation about present-day Finland and it information society., ... discusses the lessons from both Nokia, and the Finnish Innovation model, for business and national technology policies. Essential reading for anyone with responsibilities in those areas - as well as being of interest to many general readers.

Manuel Castells is Professor of Sociology, and Professor of City & Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was appointed in 1979 after teaching for twelve years at the University of Paris. He has also been a visiting professor in fifteen universities around the world, and an invited lecturer in hundreds of academic and professional institutions in thirty-five countries.Pekka Himanen works as a researcher in Europe and the United States. Following the completion of his Ph.D. eight years ago, he has also carried out field study in India, China, and Japan. He has been an adviser to the Finnish government on the information society, and to the Finnish Ministry of Eduacation and numerous universities on the virtual university. He works with some of the world's leading information technology companies on the human-oriented approaches to the informationsociety.