Scenarios for a Sustainable Information Society Strategy for the

Mediterranean Region

Jesse Marsh, Atelier Studio Associato, Palermo (IT) jesse@atelier.it

Developing an Information Society scenario for the countries in the Mediterranean basin
cannot ignore the current trends of globalisation and their impact. Manuel Castells, in The
Rise of the Network Society1, identifies the three main centres of global power as the US, the
European Union and Southeast Asia. The prospects for the Mediterranean countries might
therefore seem bleak: the only possible sources of competitiveness appear to be linked to a
dependent, neo-colonialist relationship with Europe or some other "centre of power" in the
globalised economy. Overcoming this situation requires that we acquire a more culturally-
oriented view towards the Information Society, developing different visions based on the
specificities of different regions, through which to construct their own Information Societies.
Here it may be useful to compare two understandings of “technology”: the first and more
traditional one considers technology as a product; in the second, technology is socially
constructed, namely defined by how people actually shape tools to their needs. In this context,
an Information Society scenario for any area needs to first look at the cultural logics of a place
or locus, and then examine the perspectives for the kind of social and structural innovation
required to reach a Sustainable Information Society. Perhaps the best way to do so is through
the concept of creativity of milieu. 2 If technologies are socially constructed, then the building
of an Information Society most appropriate to a given region will depend more on the
collective creativity of its social and economic individuals and organisations than on the
actual availability of state-of-the-art infrastructures.
At this point, we can also review the main criteria for Sustainability in this context: equity
means not only a fair distribution of resources and opportunities, but also the respect for
regional differences and dignities; futurity would introduce as a criterion for the survival over
time of systems, a link with the past heritage of peoples; ecology would imply not simply the
balance of natural systems, but also that of cultural and social systems; and participation
would go beyond vote-taking to include active, collective participation, i.e. social creativity.
Given this background, we can identify three loci - Centrum, Peripheria and Mediterranea -
illustrated in the diagram on the following page. We start from the core of what Castells
defines as one of the three centres of power in the trend towards globalisation: the European
Union. Actually, we are talking about the central area of power more or less contained
between Frankfurt, Paris, London and Amsterdam that could be called Centrum. These
regions share a higher industrial production, lower unemployment, a higher gross product,
better access to infrastructures, etc. as compared to the rest of Europe. We could basically say
that Centrum was formed with the shift from sea to rail transport in the early decades of this
century, and has remained the centre of industrial and financial power since then.
In contrast with Centrum, Peripheria as a locus is emerging in Europe as a function of the
Information Society. Peripheria is formed by a system of networks linking the peripheral
regions, in contrast with and overcoming the typical "North-South" divide. These regions are
using Information Society technologies to build collaborative networks and overlapping

1
Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford, 1996.
2
See Charles Landry, Helsinki: Towards a Creative City; Seizing the opportunity and maximising potential, City
of Helsinki Urban Facts, Helsinki, 1998.
alliances, which carry forward through different initiatives. The common ground of Peripheria
is based on historical, geographical, economic and cultural factors such as physical distance
from infrastructures, little history of industrialisation, a tightly knit social fabric, and an
extraordinary natural and/or cultural heritage. The development of a distinctive approach to
the Information Society in Peripheria creates the possibility for a new relationship with
Centrum, as peer rather than colony, generating a potential dialogue which in turn promises to
form the basis of a specifically European vision for a Sustainable Information Society.

PERIPHERIA

CENTRUM

MEDITERRANEA

As a social and cultural locus in the Information Society, we would argue that Mediterranea
does not yet exist. Yet we could imagine Mediterranea as an inter-linking of different
Peripherias, including for example: the European Peripheria we have just described; a
"second-tier" European Peripheria for the Maghreb countries; a Peripheria whose centre of
reference is in Saudi Arabia; and so forth. The prospects for commonalities are based on a
shared history, though often conflictual, dating from Magna Grecia and the Venetian
commerce routes up to the latter-day colonialist remnants of the European Mediterranean
countries. But perhaps most importantly, Mediterranean peoples have a deeply embedded
tradition of commerce, exchange and negotiation: one of the most common features of both
large cities and small towns is the street market. This is also due to the fact that, given the
climate, much of life takes place in shared urban spaces rather than inside public or private
buildings.
Given these three loci - Centrum, Peripheria and Mediterranea - and their main cultural
characteristics, we can now synthesise for each the potential for collective creativity in the
Information Society:
Centrum Peripheria Mediterranea
Heritage Industrial AtriCultural AgriCommercial
Culture Conformity Diversity Inter-culturality
Networks Capital-based Social networks Continuously negotiated
Markets Mass markets Niche markets Barter markets
Technology Advanced-transfer Adapted/autonomous Ad-hoc constructed
Target Large organisations Networked SMEs Non-profits, NGOs
Policy Industrial Cohesion Social innovation

Provided this framework, there is a doubt as to whether on-going development initiatives in

the Mediterranean countries are pointing towards a Sustainable Information Society or instead
headed towards inexorable rebound effects in terms of colonisation and violence on delicate
ecosystems. Let us take as an example tourism, one of the fastest-growing sectors in the
global economy and a key market for Mediterranea. We can examine different types of

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"transactions" which take place, with reference to Manuel Castells's definition of the four
categories of a new international division of labour (in reverse order):3
• Redundant producers, reduced to devalued labour: A tourist may want to take home "nice
pictures of the natives." This is a transaction where the persons involved receive little
benefit from the tourist; the added value instead goes to hotels and travel agencies.
• Producers of raw materials, based on natural endowments: A tourist may also plan a trip
in order to enjoy a week on the beach. This is essentially a transaction between the tourist
and the natural heritage, essentially subtracting added value from local resources.
• Producers of high volume, based on lower-cost labour: A tourist will buy local products
as gifts and souvenirs, especially those that cost less than at home. The fact that many of
these traditions survive is mainly due to a lower cost of living and thus labour.
• Producers of high value, based on informational labour: Finally, a tourist may want to
gain new knowledge about other cultures. This can include eating local dishes, studying
the history of peoples and monuments, or even learning how to make ceramics in the local
style. This is the only type of transaction requiring direct communication as an essentially
learning experience.
The conclusion is then obvious: a strategy for Sustainability, especially in the Information
Society, needs to emphasise the latter categories, in order to play a distinctive and competitive
role in the Knowledge Economy. Let us then examine two types of "knowledge processing",
one more traditional and the other as a proposal of this paper. The first is generally called
Knowledge Production, as it consists in the creation of new knowledge, measured for instance
by the number of patents registered. The raw material, which transforms new knowledge into
competitiveness, consists of capital resources.
A second type of knowledge processing, which we call "Knowledge Mining", focuses more
on the re-processing of existing, culturally embedded knowledge. As compared to Data
Mining, from which we derive the term, the databases from which Knowledge Mining derives
added value are living cultures; the added value comes from making this knowledge available
to others. Knowledge Mining has an especially significant potential for Mediterranea in
relation to some of the specific characteristics and creativities listed previously. As a
negotiated communicational transaction based on an understanding of the dynamics of inter-
culturality, it is particularly adapted to niche markets based on differing interests, tastes and
curiosities. Its potential for transformation into global competitiveness requires not so much
capital resources as the presence of cultural resources, which abound in the Mediterranean
countries.
Shaping on-going actions in the direction of fostering a Sustainable Knowledge Economy in
Mediterranea involves steering the social construction of Information Society technologies in
line with the observations developed previously. We can link different policy
recommendations to what Manuel Castells defines as the four main sources of
competitiveness in the global economy.4
• Political capacity to steer growth strategies: The transformation of local, socially
embedded cultural resources into global niche products requires a range of competencies.
An appropriate policy might thus be to promote the development of open local networks,
which inter-link the range of actors involved for a given complex product such as wine
tourism, and inter-linking them with the relevant global networks.

3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.

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• Differential between production costs and market prices: Here the key is not so much to
lower production costs but to emphasise high added value. The way different peoples
make wine, use spices, or paint ceramics has a market value that increases as a function of
the cultural homogeneity resulting from globalisation.
• Access to a large, integrated, affluent market: Electronic commerce and the development
of virtual enterprises can perhaps make a greater difference for Mediterranea than for
Centrum. The condition is that the Mediterranean peoples be able to mould these tools to
their different needs, so that the user is learning as much as buying and the host is
communicating as much as selling.
• Systemic technological capacity: For Mediterranea, the emphasis should be more on
communicational than organisational competence. Knowledge Mining needs ultimately to
tell a story, and this can only be done by those who have that story in their own blood.
This however requires significant investments in local human capital for the ability to
appropriately manipulate new media.
Finally, we identify some key trends that we consider "enabling" factors for the development
of a specific Information Society for Mediterranea, and for a Sustainable Information Society
in general. These can be represented as a shift:
• From an emphasis on Information as a good, to Communication as the basis for the social
construction of technology.
• From an orientation towards Products, both individual and "Gross National", to Processes
based on collective creativity.
• From a Sectorial orientation, to an Integrated cross-sector approach capable of capturing
the systemic aspects of Sustainability.
• From Homogeneity considered as a platform for diffusion, to Multiplicity considered as an
enabler of diffusion.
• From Linear development and implementation life cycles, to Cyclical and iterative life
cycles driven by social involvement in creative processes.
• From the role of Co-ordination, or top-down direction of implementation, to the role of
Animation, or communicational facilitation of socially creative dialogue.
• From a mind set of Evolution, based on continuity with the norms and practices of the
Industrial Society, to one of Rupture, based on paradigm shifts linked to the explosive
potentials of the Information Society.
For the peoples of the Mediterranean basin, the challenge is to translate these opportunities
into concrete examples of creative action. The potential is there and it is significant; if
properly captured, a new model for a sustainable information society can be developed from
which - who knows? - maybe even Centrum could learn something from.