THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TELEMATICS An Essay on the Information Society -- Editorial page -- Titale page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- AUTHOR'S PREFACE -- TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE -- List of technical abbreviations -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. THE TECHNICALITIES OF TELEMATICS -- 2. THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TELEMATICS -- 2.1. The Significance of Technology -- 2.2. Technology: The Study of Human Ingenuity in the Pursuit of Chosen Goals -- 2.3. Society's Generation of Alternatives -- 2.4. The Future is Very Present -- 2.5. Technology as Anticipation: Taking Arms against Pure Objectivity -- 3. THE TENDENTIAL CONTENT OF TELEMATICS -- 3.1. Technology or Economics? -- Technology as the Engine of Change -- 3.2. Japan: I. T. Development Policy with Material Wealth as its Premiss -- 3.2.1. Japan's Integrated Cable Network -- 3.2.2. The Ideology: the Vision of a Rational Society -- 3.2.3. R. and D. to the Greater Glory of the Japanese Economy -- 3.2.4. Japan's Significance in the Technology versus Economics Debate -- 3.3. The Tendential Content of Telematics -- 4. THE LATENT FUTURE POTENTIAL INHERENT IN TELEMATICS -- 4.1. Technology: Salvation or Perdition? -- 4.1.1. The Deceptive Nature of Technology -- 4.1.2. The Anticipative Task Ahead -- 4.2. Against Oversimplification: Towards the Structural Analysis of the Latent Future Potential Inherent in Telematics -- 4.2.1. Tackling the Ideological Confusion Surrounding Telematics -- 4.2.2. More Information Equals Spiritual Wealth or Spiritual Impoverishment? -- 4.2.3. The Greater Efficiency of I. T. will Produce a More or Less Human Society? -- 4.2.4. Other Ongoing Debates about Telematics -- 4.2.5. The Necessity for the Systematic Structural Analysis of Telematics in Relation to the Life of the Individual in Society -- 4.3. Traditional Normative Thinking and Its Limitations.

Enlightenment Utopian Thinking: The Cradle of Today's Deadlocked Debates -- 4.4. Anticipative Normative Thinking -- 5. IDLENESS DOESN'T PAY! -- 6. PARTICIPATIVE GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY AT THE PUSH OFA BUTTON? -- 6.1. Vertical and Horizontal Communication -- 6.2. Today's Democratic Dilemma -- 6.3. Back to the Old Laboratory: Today's Democratic Dilemma in Yesterday's Enlightenment Philosophy -- 6.4. Deadlock and Beyond -- 7. THE INFLUENCE OF TELEMATICS ON MODES OF PERCEPTIONAND MORALITY -- 7.1. The Spatial and Temporal Boundaries of Enlightenment Philosophy -- 7.2. Practical Criticism Today: Transcending the Bounds of Space and Time in our Physical Environment -- 7.3. The Social Environment: From Physical Need Satisfaction Towards Need Manipulation -- 8. TELEMATICS, SOCIAL CONTROL, AND THE BLIND SELF-DECEPTION OF UNREFLECTIVE TENDENTIAL CRITICISM -- 8.1. Knowledge is Power? -- 8.2. I.T. as Military Technology -- 8.3. The 'Natural' Opposition -- 8.4. Power Old and New: Confiscation v. Self-Castigation -- 9. MEDIATING THE QUALITATIVELY NEW: SOME SEMINAL EXAMPLES OF ONGOING SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS IN SWEDEN AND FRANCE -- 9.1. Proving the Pudding: All Good Theories are Practically Useful! -- 9.2. The Necessity for Enthusiasm -- 9.3. Social Experiments with Telematics in France, Sweden and - ? -- 9.3.1. Grannskap 90: A Swedish Experiment with Remote Terminal Office Work -- 9.3.2. The Framework for Social Experiments in France -- 9.3.3. French Pilot Projects: Technology in Quest of Social Needs -- 9.3.4. Marseille: 1,000 Microcomputers in the 'Belle de Mai' District -- 9.3.5. The Fibreoptic Cable Network in Biarritz -- 9.3.6. The World Centre for Computing and Human Resources -- 10. THE ONLY CONCEIVABLE WAY FORWARD - SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH TELEMATICS: THEORY, SUMMARY, PRACTICAL GUIDELINES, CONCLUSION.

10.1. Some Fundamental Points in the Definition of the Theoretical Concept of Social Experiments with Telematics -- 10.2. Why and How Social Experiments with Telematics Can and Must Be Carried Out -- 10.2.1. The Sociopolitical Aspects -- 10.2.2. Commercial and Industrial Aspects -- 10.2.3. The Technological Aspects -- 10.3. Social Experiments with Telematics as Strategic Praxis in Relation to Utopian Theory -- 10.4. Practical Advantages of Social Experiments with Telematics -- The Inadequacy of Traditional Market Research -- Who Should Have Most Say in the Design of I. T. and Telematics Equipment: Artists, Salesmen, or Potential Users? -- The Desirability of the Democratic Planning of Societal Infrastructures -- The Desirability of the Empirical Testing of New Communications Systems -- The Full Future Development of I. T. and Telematics Technology is Impossible to Predict -- Private Bureaucracy and Public Enterprise -- 10.5. Summary of the Concept of 'Social Experiments with Telematics' and Some Concrete Guidelines -- Presuppositions -- Definitions -- The Supportive Framework -- Potential Benefits -- 10.6. Conclusion: Advanced Technology in the Service of Mankind -- FOOTNOTES -- REFERENCES.