e-Culture: The European Perspective Cultural Policy, Creative Industries, Information Lag: Proceeding from the Round Table Meeting Zagreb, 24-27 April 2003

During the last ten years the concept of information society has become central in all analysis of social and cultural development. The analyses of modernization and emergence of post-modern (or late modern) condition have been pushed aside, remaining largely confined to the dominants of thought for social problem solvers and academic philosophers. At the same time the emergence of a new eCulture, based on the interactive digital applications of the ICT, is taken more or less for granted. It is not difficult to understand the reasons for the popularity of the latter concepts. First, in contrast to the ideas of modernization and post/late modernity, the ideas of an information society and eCulture are intuitively more easily perceived. More information, or better access to information, is easier to understand than more modernity. Also, information has positive connotations which link it with such terms as knowledge, creativity, innovations and democratic participation. Secondly the ideas of an information society and eCulture have been closely linked to the progress of one definite form of technology, the ICT, and its applications contribute to a better organization of our everyday life. Consequently, these applications are usually perceived as being more positive than those of other technologies.