Overview

Information- and Communication Technologies are changing society and the everyday life in Europe. ICT policy and industry often assume that this development will provide important opportunities to increase quality of life and improve social relationships. The EU project SOCQUIT (Social Capital, Quality of Life and IST) analyses the effects of ICT on social capital and quality of life to support ICT policy makers.
 
Creating societal benefits with ICT

There is considerable emphasis on developing Information Society Technologies (IST) to create societal benefits for European citizens. These are deemed to include greater employment opportunities and greater social cohesion and inclusion. Explicit references are made for improving Europeans’ quality of life and social participation with IST. Although there is evidence that IST can be a critical energiser of social and economic regeneration as well as overall quality of life, the specific impact of IST on inter-personal and community-based social relationships (known as ‘social capital’) is not as well understood. By collecting, analysing and presenting the available knowledge in a systematic way, SOCQUIT will support evidence based decision-making in this field.

Social relationships are key for quality of life: literature shows that IST use could increase quality of life in several ways, for example by giving access to information, connecting individuals with their social networks and supporting the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Besides the use itself, IST also contributes to quality of life in an indirect way (so called ‘supply-effects’), as it enable more efficient and effective service provisioning in sectors as for example health care, education and financing. SOCQUIT concludes that one of the biggest opportunities for ISTs to increase quality of life are probably through their impact on citizens’ social life. Research has shown that social relationships have a big influence on perceived quality of life. As IST is developing more and more into the direction of a social network and communication technology, it seems to be a good enabler for social contact and quality of life.

The effects of IST on social interactions seem to be three-fold:

  • IST strengthens social interaction: People can contact each other more easily because IST can take away constraints of time and space.
  • IST weakens social interaction: IST could draw people away from real-life contacts with family and friends. Furthermore, by facilitating global communication and involvement, it reduces interest in the local community.
  • IST supplements social interaction: People use IST to maintain existing social contacts by adding electronic contact to telephone and face-to-face contact.

 

As the effects of IST on social interactions can be very diverse, it is important to gain more knowledge about its impact. SOCQUIT analyzes how IST contributes to social capital and quality of life, based on empirical data.
 


Research approach: involvement of stakeholders

SOCQUIT’s research approach includes the following activities:

i) State-of-the-art review: In a review of literature and available data-sets SOCQUIT has collected and analyzed the state of the art knowledge about the impact ISTs can make on quality of life through support for social capital

ii) Dynamic modelling: SOCQUIT will condense the state-of-the-art knowledge about the interrelationships between quality of life, social capital and IST into dynamic models. The relationships in these models will be validated and (if possible) quantified by analysis on several data sets, expert interviews and literature research.

iii) Analysis of implications: Four cases will be elaborated in SOCQUIT to deepen the knowledge about the (potential) effects of IST on social capital and quality of life. The policy topics that are selected in consultation with stakeholder representatives are: ·

  • Employment

  • Ageing society

  • Local initiatives

  • Migrants

Interaction with stakeholders is a crucial part of the project. Representatives from policy, research and industry are playing an important role for validation as well as dissemination of results.
 

SOCQUIT deliverables

SOCQUIT’s main deliverables are:

  1. State of the art review report.  This report provides an overview of the state-of-the-art literature on this issue.

  2. Decision support tool.  This tool integrates and converts the results from the quantitative data analysis, expert interviews and workshops as well as literature research. It is freely available for research, policy and industry purposes and easy to use. Dynamic models are presented, explained and validated.

  3. Policy recommendations.  In this report the implications of SOCQUIT’s result are worked out and recommendations for policy strategies are given.

  4. Dissemination.  SOCQUIT results are disseminated by several means. Interactive seminars and a final conference are organised. Several presentations at international conferences and workshops are given.
SOCQUIT at A Glance:

SOCQUIT - Social Capital, Quality of Life and IST

Partners: TNO (NL), Telenor (NO), University of Essex (UK), Eurescom (D), FTR (F)

Project Coordinator Jeroen Heres (TNO)
tel.: +31 15 285 7080  fax: +31 15 269 7057  e-mail: jeroen.heres@tno.nl

Duration: December 2003 – November 2005

Website: www.socquit.net

 

 

Disclaimer
The content of the SOCQUIT Website is owned by the SOCQUIT project consortium. The SOCQUIT project consortium does not accept any responsibility or liability for any use made of the information provided on this webpage.
The FP6 logo in this webpage is owned by the European Commission. The use of the logo reflects that SOCQUIT receives funding from the European Commission. Apart from this, the European Commission has no responsibility for the content of this Website.