Towards the information society

Information and knowledge play an increasingly important role in the implementation of public policies, in particular those of the Central and Eastern European Countries. In the context of conducting research on the consequences of scientific and technological advance, the Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (Germany) and the Academy of Science of The Czech Republic organised a conference on the relation between "Democracy, Participation and Technology Assessment". The workshop provided an overview of the status and perspec- tives of Technology Assessment (TA) in the individual coun- tries of Central and Eastern Europe. It also showed the com- plexity of creation of space for TA type activities in indi- vidual countries - for independent activity of both experts and the public based on individual responsibility. The book consists of the final version of the presented papers and new contributions initiated by the workshop. Moreover, the authors reflect the ideas and incentives sounded in the dis- cussions. The book is addressed to researchers in the fields of social science, humanities, information technology and technology assessment in particular. It may be also be of interest to policy-makers and the wider public concerned with information society.