A new book examined the part played by technology in the lives of young people. The benefits of using technologies such as the internet and mobile devices far outweighed any perceived risks.
Source: Chris Davies and Rebecca Eynon, Teenagers and Technology, Routledge
Links: Summary | Oxford University press release
Date: 2012-Dec
The coalition government published a digital strategy, setting out how it would redesign its digital services to make them so straightforward and convenient that all those who could use them preferred to do so.
Source: Government Digital Strategy, Cabinet Office
Links: Strategy | Cabinet Office press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined technological advances that could dramatically change how people worked in the future. These technologies included cognition-enhancing drugs, bionic limbs, and retinal implants – affecting various human capacities such as memory, hearing, and mobility. Human enhancement technologies might aid society, but could also raise serious ethical, philosophical, regulatory, and economic issues.
Source: Human Enhancement and the Future of Work, Academy of Medical Sciences
Links: Report | British Academy press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined ways of overcoming digital exclusion among older people. Over 7.5 million adults had never used the internet. The majority of non-users were older, had disabilities, or were in the lowest income groups.
Source: Mark Mason, David Sinclair, and Craig Berry, Nudge or Compel? Can behavioural economics tackle the digital exclusion of older people?, International Longevity Centre – UK
Links: Report | Summary | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined the incidence and determinants of online job search for the period 2006–2009. Use of the internet had increased over this period, with employed job-seekers most likely to undertake online job search. Older job-seekers and those with lower education levels were most likely to be disadvantaged. Job-seekers from less prosperous regions and those outside major metropolitan areas were least likely to make use of the internet for job search.
Source: Anne Green, Yuxin Li, David Owen, and Maria de Hoyos, 'Inequalities in use of the internet for job search: similarities and contrasts by economic status in Great Britain', Environment and Planning A, Volume 44 Number 10
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
A think-tank report said that the coalition government's plans to digitize public services could prevent 5.4 million older people – over half of all people aged 65 or above – from accessing vital services such as their state pension. The report supported the greater use of the internet to deliver more personalized, cheaper, and speedier public services: but it said that the government needed to pay special attention to older people, who often preferred face-to-face contact when carrying out activities such as paying bills, grocery shopping, or banking.
Source: Sarah Fink, Simple Things, Done Well: Making practical progress on digital engagement and inclusion, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A new book examined the evolution of digital communication systems and the internet. It considered a range of questions, including whether the internet contributed to progress, social cohesion, democracy, and growth.
Source: Robin Mansell, Imagining the Internet: Communication, innovation, and governance, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary | LSE press release
Date: 2012-Aug
A new book examined the range of activities that could be defined as cyber threats. It showed how this activity formed in communities, and what could be done to try to prevent individuals from becoming cyber terrorists.
Source: Imran Awan and Brian Blakemore (eds), Policing Cyber Hate, Cyber Threats and Cyber Terrorism, Ashgate Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jul
Two linked reports examined the potential direct and indirect influences of various kinds of technologies on the long-term care sector in Europe.
Source: Angelo Rossi Mori (with Roberto Dandi, Marta Mazzeo, Rita Verbicaro, and Gregorio Mercurio), Technological Solutions Potentially Influencing the Future of Long-Term Care, Research Report 114, European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes | Marta Mazzeo, Patrizia Agnello, and Angelo Rossi Mori (with Marie-Eve Joel, Alain Berard, Marko Ogorevc, Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, Roberto Dandi, and Luca Giustiniano), Role and Potential Influence of Technologies on the Most Relevant Challenges for Long-Term Care, Research Report 113, European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes
Links: Report 114 | Report 113
Date: 2012-Jul
A new book examined internet use by children in Europe. It considered the prospect of enhanced opportunities for learning, creativity, and communication – set against the fear of cyberbullying, pornography, and invasion of privacy by both strangers and peers.
Source: Sonia Livingstone, Leslie Haddon, and Anke Gorzig (eds), Children, Risk and Safety on the Internet: Research and policy challenges in comparative perspective, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jul
A think-tank report examined the implications of new digital technology for how the criminal justice system served the victims of crime. It said that the technology had the potential to make criminal justice agencies more accountable, participatory, collaborative, accessible, responsive, and efficient.
Source: Rick Muir, Open Justice: Empowering victims through data and technology, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | Victim Support press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Jun
A report highlighted the growing problem of 'digital exclusion'. It provided new evidence that government efforts to move services and transactions online were particularly disadvantaging older people, those with disabilities, and self-employed people. The most common determinant of digital exclusion was age: but other significant factors – often combined with low income – included disability, learning difficulties, ethnic origin, location, culture, and language. People who were digitally excluded were likely to be disproportionately heavy users of government services.
Source: Digital Exclusion, Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (Chartered Institute of Taxation)
Links: Report | LITRG press release
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank report said that the growth of social media posed a dilemma for security and law enforcement agencies. On the one hand, social media could provide a new form of intelligence that could contribute decisively to keeping the public safe. On the other, national security was dependent on public understanding and support for the measures being taken. Analysis of social media for intelligence purposes did not fit easily into the policy and legal frameworks that guaranteed that such activity was proportionate, necessary, and accountable. Social media should become a permanent part of the intelligence framework: but it needed to be based on a publicly argued, legal footing, with clarity and transparency over use, storage, purpose, regulation, and accountability.
Source: David Omand, Jamie Bartlett, and Carl Miller, #Intelligence, Demos
Date: 2012-Apr
A report called for a 'technological transformation' to support families caring for ill, frail, and disabled people. Technology could help to create virtual networks to help family members to organize caring duties between them; and remote technology could enable them, and National Health Service staff, to monitor the health and well-being of people being cared for in their own homes.
Source: Future Care: Care and technology in the 21st century, Carers UK
Links: Report | Carers UK press release
Date: 2012-Mar
A new book examined the implications of contemporary technology for the practice of criminal justice, and related them to key historical precedents in the way that technology had been interpreted and controlled. It outlined a new 'social' way of thinking about technology – in terms of its effects on people's bodies and what they could do, most obviously the ways in which social life and the ability to causally interact with the world was being 'extended' in various ways.
Source: Michael McGuire, Technology, Crime and Justice: The question concerning 'technomia', Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Mar
A new book examined the implications of contemporary technology for the practice of criminal justice.
Source: Mike McGuire, Technology, Crime and Justice: The question concerning 'technomia', Willan Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Feb
A special issue of a journal examined the role of digital technologies in the lives of young people.
Source: Oxford Review of Education, Volume 38 Issue 1
Links: Table of contents
Date: 2012-Feb
A report by a committee of peers said that procedures should be overhauled in order to prevent government departments from ignoring and sidelining scientific evidence that affected their policies.
Source: The Role and Functions of Departmental Chief Scientific Advisers, 4th Report (Session 2010-12), HL 264, House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | British Academy press release | RSS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Feb
A report by a committee of MPs said that the coalition government's information technology procurement strategy was still deficient (following a previous report) in respect of independent benchmarking of contracts, transparency of data, understanding of the risks of legacy systems, and clarity over how to address the information technology skills gap.
Source: Government and IT – 'A Recipe for Rip-Offs': Time for a new approach: Further Report, with the Government Response to the Committee's Twelfth Report, Twentieth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1724, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Cabinet Office press release
Notes: MPs report (July 2011)
Date: 2012-Jan
A new book examined the interaction between social media and contemporary democratic politics, and the emerging importance of social media in civic engagement.
Source: Brian Loader and Dan Mercea (eds.), Social Media and Democracy: Innovations in participatory politics, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jan
An article examined the impact of new social media on the 2011 English riots. Commentary on the riots in the news and popular press had been obscured by speculation and political rhetoric about the role of social media. In considering the riots to be symptomatic of criminality and austerity, commentators had tended to revive outdated 'crowd' theories that were unable to account for the effect of new social media.
Source: Stephanie Alice Baker, 'From the criminal crowd to the "mediated crowd": the impact of social media on the 2011 English riots', Safer Communities, Volume 11 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
A new book examined strategies for enhancing the safety of children in the online environment. It highlighted the governance challenges raised by the problems of ascertaining the integrity, authenticity, and reliability of information flows and network infrastructures.
Source: Joseph Savirimuthu, Online Child Safety: Law, technology and governance, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jan
A study found that encouraging older people to apply for smart cards and passes online could save money and improve services. Older people could also became more active and engaged in their communities by using smart cards to extend the range of services and concessions that they were entitled to.
Source: Alice Mowlam, Sally Bridges, Valdeep Gill, Andy MacGregor, Jude Ranasinghe, and Elizabeth Tideswell, Active at 60: Local evaluation research – Final report, Research Report 786, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2012-Jan