This book takes stock of the existing socioeconomic knowledge about a range of the core social issues of the information society. Chapter 1, "Information Infrastructures or Societies?" (Ken Ducatel, Juliet Webster, Werner Herrmann), is an introduction. Part 1, "Space, Economy, and the Global Information Society" looks at the processes of economic development and job creation related to the adaptation to and adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and contains: chapter 2, "Regional Development in the Information Society" (James Cornford, Andrew Gillespie, Ranald Richardson); chapter 3, "The Use of ICTs in Large Firms: Impacts and Policy Issues (Mark Hepworth, John Ryan)"; and chapter 4, "Small Firms in Europe's Developing Information Society" (Mark Hepworth, John Ryan). Part 2, "Work and the European Information Society," provides evidence of the uneven impact and socially mediated nature of the ICT revolution on different categories of worker and contains: chapter 5, "New Organizational Forms in the Information Society" (Gerhard Bosch, Juliet Webster, Hans-Jurgen Weisbach); chapter 6, "Today's Second Sex and Tomorrow's First? Women and Work in the European Information Society" (Juliet Webster); and chapter 7, "Toward the Learning Labor Market" (Ken Ducatel, Hanne Shapiro, Teresa Rees, Claudia Weinkopf). Part 3, "Life in the Information Society," provides an account of the social reality in four policy "targets." Within it are: chapter 8, "Health and the Information Society" (Jorma Rantanen, Suvi Lehtinen); chapter 9, "ICTs in Distance and Lifelong Learning" (Gill Kirkup, Ann Jones); chapter 10, "ICTs and Everyday Life: Individual and Social Dimensions" (Leslie Haddon, Roger Silverstone); and chapter 11, "Computer-Aided Democracy: The Effects of ICTs on Democracy" (Pierre Chambat). Appendixes include 728 references and index. (YLB)