Abstract:
Academic discussions of European integration have focused overly on political processes without sufficient attention being paid to the changing technical processes which have underpinned these political processes of European integration. At the same time, explorations on the World Wide Web reveal a wealth of policy literature produced by European institutions which speak to the importance of technology and shared technology standards in European integration. This article seeks to soften this divide by exploring the role of information technology in integrating a politically transforming Europe. Using a set of case examples, it examines the ways in which new information technologies are connecting geographical areas which do not share borders. The social and information contours of Europe are under change.

1. Introduction: shifting boundaries, integrating technologies: the emergence of a new Europe?

Across the board, scholars of Europe understand that the new Europe is a context of shifting boundaries. Not only are boundaries shifting in terms of the prevailing patterns of action and integration of European states but so too are the boundaries around the definition of priorities for action. The 'architecture of transactions' (Cibarra, 2000) has altered. As the Centre for European Politics and Society at Carleton University notes it is as time to ‘rethink’ European boundaries (http://www.carleton.ca/polisci/ceps/):

Developments over the course of the last few decades have forced a reassessment of the parameters of European politics. The Single European Act, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, developments in Russia, and the Treaty on European Union are some of the events that have contributed to changing boundaries within Europe. This is a process that involves not just strategic alliances and European integration but also the shifting balance between the public and the private spheres, between state and society, between and within political structures.

Whilst many have focused on these changing boundaries of European integration, less attention has been paid to the extent to which the new European integration is an outcome of technical as well as political forces (Wells and Grieco, 1993). For example, the introduction to the ESRC funded one-europe programme home page (http://www.one-europe.ac.uk/subpages/academ.htm) focuses on the many facets of European integration and disruption without explicit mention of the technical or technological domain:

The 'One Europe?' Programme examines contemporary processes of political, security, economic, social and cultural change across the European continent, as well as issues of convergence and divergence and prospects for integration and fragmentation. The Programme has both east-west and north-south dimensions. Many projects are cross-country comparisons. Others evaluate the European institutions, in particular the European Union and NATO, in the context of eastern enlargement.

Whereas the discussion of globalisation has focused substantially on the new dynamics of technical integration most particularly in relation to the role performed by information communication technologies (ICTs)(Ciborra, 2000), the discussion of European integration and of European expansion has largely left this issue unexamined - an exception is the work of Delanty, (1998 http://www.socresonline.org.uk/3/1/1.html) which identifies the role of the new globalised 'network' technologies in the potential dismantling of European national identities. The new Europe is not simply a location of shifting boundaries but it is a context of integrating technologies which enable such boundary shifting. The new European architecture of transactions and the modes of communications which have supported the emergence of this new architecture not only transform the governance structures of Europe but, as Delanty advises us (1998), also transform the location and meaning of national and local identity within Europe (Holmes and Grieco, 2002). The social and information contours of Europe are under change and this change is predicated in the changes in technology and the arrival of new dimensions of connectivity.

2. Loose coupling, information sharing: governance and technology in the enlarging European union

Traditionally and historically, physical adjacency was an important condition for cooperation: the smaller the geographical units cooperating, the greater was the importance of adjacency. The new information technologies make possible cooperation of very small geographical units at substantial distances from one another. Small administrative units can twin and group together electronically on a day to day and shared network basis: such electronic groupings can provide small units cooperatively and collectively organised with the same scale benefits available traditionally to larger and more central administrative and governance units. The ability to share administrative and technical resources over distance is transformed by new electronic modes (see for example, http://www.eurocities.org/) yet the literature is largely silent on this issue.

Local authorities in distant and distinct locations can link up with one another in terms of shared administrative tasks: for instance, local authorities along a trans-European highway can coordinate with one another no matter what section of the highway they adjoin (for information on the Trans-European Networks -Transport go to http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/themes/network/english/its/index.htm; for information on pan-European highway policy discussions in Poland, go to http://www.zpsb.szczecin.pl/English/OIC1.htm) in establishing tolling charges and the administration and allocation of those tolling charges. The development of charging technologies such as Smart cards which can be used for a number of functions in any of the administrative regions adjoining a trans-European communication route would provide an example of a loose coupling, information sharing arrangement between local authorities: technology is enabling an expansion of governance in such a context so that any administration within such a scheme can interact with the passing traveller over a range of functions.

Loose coupling and information sharing in Europe has not been confined to the extension of governance and administration in respect of travelling citizens. The technical twinning of cities has been of great importance in terms of research and policy development tasks (http://www.eurocities.org/): the technical history of Europe has been a patchwork of technologies tightly defined by the boundaries of the respective nation states and this has been the case even in respect of technologies which were essentially of a network character in terms of function and purpose such as rail (Wells and Grieco, 1993).

Two technical forces have been at play in the deconstructing of these distinct technical terrains in the integrating Europe: the first and initially most important was specific European technology programmes in the late 1980s and 1990s such as the DRIVE programme (Dedicated Road Infrastructure for Vehicle Safety in Europe located in the Information Technology Directorate of the European Commission) which sought to ensure that pan-European technology teams and initiatives were formed which acted to integrate European technical development and reduce the 'national' character of European technology development (for information on the history of the deployment of transport telematics in Europe go to http://www.cordis.lu/telematics/tap_transport/intro/benefits/history.htm). The second and now clearly most important force was that of the globalisation of technology - in particular the development and expansion of highly distributed technologies such as the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web enables the smallest of institutions to cooperate with the minimum of investment in shared technical systems.

The globalisation of technology has produced the universal tools for cooperation between small units: it is a technology which permits high levels of information sharing with very loose coupling. As a matter of daily practice and routine, the smallest of administrative units can be loosely coupled to one another with the potential for very high levels of coordination by virtue of technology (Perrow, 1999).

The new globalised information communication technologies have major consequences for the delivery of education and not surprisingly the European institutions have established substantial programmes for promoting and integrating European education and skill acquisition through new information communication technologies. The European Commission Information Society Programme (vth Framework)'Technologies for Knowledge and Skills Acquisition' in its Proposal for a Research Agenda, October 1997 (http://www.ecotec.com/sharedtetriss/interact/bul_5th2.html) drew attention to the importance of the World Wide Web for integration in European education and skills acquisition:

• The internet technologies are at the core of the main universal infrastructure of the future
• Internet and the World Wide Web are already creating the largest uniformly accessible pool of knowledge ever to have existed and this pool will be at the heart of the knowledge society. Most if not all new networks deployed today by companies or institutions are based on Internet technologies. This will lead to a world-wide seamlessly integrated information exchange system. It is very likely that in the near future other networks like the libraries network will be integrated into a global knowledge network.
• From an education and training viewpoint a huge R&D and standardisation effort needs to be made in order to effectively use and manage this knowledge. Work needs to be done on the computer representation of knowledge, indexing and structuring of knowledge, on navigation aids in large knowledge pools, specific filters, navigators, search engines and brokerage mechanisms should also be developed.
• New developments and the convergence between information networks and digital broadcasting will dramatically increase bandwidth and processing power, enabling a range of new applications like shared virtual environment, large scale simulations and so on.

In this reflection on the importance of the Internet and the World Wide Web, the globalisation of technology and its importance for the integration of a Europe with a prior history of distinct, national technical systems becomes clear. In addition, and as we can see from this exert, the availability of globalised information technologies creates the opportunities to make use of add-on shared software across distributed networks and institutions on a community net or knowledge platform basis.(Holmes and Grieco, 2002)

Apart from the Eurocities programme which promotes information sharing through the loose coupling of governance institutions and the dissemination and convergence of 'best practice' in European governance, there are a number of other initiatives which operate along similar lines. The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (go to http://www.kuntaliitto.fi/english/euintern.htm) displays on its web site information about two such programmes.

• Locregis: The Association has, on behalf of the Commission, coordinated two successive LOCREGIS (Local and Regional Information Society) projects since 1996. The goal of these projects has been to look for successful projects in this field from the regional development point of view and to develop criteria for a categorising and assessing system for these projects.
• Logon:The goal of the project Logon (Local Government Network Between EU-Countries and Central and Eastern European Countries) is to develop the readiness of local and regional government to deal with the obligations brought on by EU–membership in the Central and Eastern European candidate countries. The project is especially based on the expertise of Austria, Finland and Sweden.

Organising information sharing in Europe has become a critical tool in the transformation of contours. The tasks of technical integration which would have faced an integrating and expanding Europe in the absence of the advent of globalised information community technologies would have been daunting and, given the different technical histories and the cultural investment that had taken place in these, would have presented major political difficulties in their resolution. Globalising technology, and European technology developments within this dominating frame, provides the conditions for a spatially expanded more transactive and transactional Europe: within this new architecture of European transactions, there is an expanded space for contestation as well as integration (Delanty, 1998). The mapping of European convergence or integration in terms of the flows of communication and information sharing agreements has yet to be undertaken and would represent a major project (Duff, 2000): in the absence of such a study, this short section has raised the issue of the role of technology in enabling information sharing and information building in the process of European integration. It has also raised the important issue of the integration of charging systems in the arena of transport and the implications of the integration of charging systems for the changing shape of governance structures within Europe.

3. Emerging patterns, linking experiences: de-localisation or relocalisation.

Assessing the impact of the new information technologies in terms of governance structures would be premature (Castells,1996: what is clear is that the new information communication technologies have brought into being the emergence of a network society where both the technology itself and access to that technology are highly distributed and reach out to and back from the individual in domestic space.

The distributed character of technology has been coupled with major European initiatives to extend access and to improve upon the range of uses by communities. There are emergent patterns but determining whether the information technology will localise or delocalise the balance of transactional activity and relational patterns in Europe is a difficult business: in the Valencia infoville located in Spain 85% of the communications traffic within this community net is local, with only 15% of the traffic being external. It is clear the new information communications technology has the capability for accentuating either tendency: it can link the individual or institution to globalised of trading or activity partners in terms of virtual activities but it can also enable easier and more frequent interaction between those individuals and institutions who share a locality (Grieco, Holmes and Little, 2000). Indeed, it may very well be that some activities become delocalised and others relocalised. No attempts to accurately chart the consequences of greater connectivity in terms of local, district or regional relational patterns has yet been undertaken - indeed, statistical evidence on the breakdown of communication patterns are few on the ground, the Valencia infoville statistic being a rare example.

In the previous section, we indicated that Smart card technology could play its part in the development of coordination of local authorities along a Trans-European Network Transport route where any authority is not adjacent to every other. Through Smart card technology revenues collected from motorists can be allocated to the respective local authorities in proportion to the expenses occurred and externalities experienced without any major increase in transaction costs being place upon the travelling motorists. In this example, technology is not merely enabling network coordination but can be used also to accentuate local integration at each location in which the Smart card is used. Smart cards can be used simply to move along a corridor or to participate in a fuller range of activities in localities along the boundaries of the highway: interoperability has become a major discussion across Europe precisely because new information communication technologies appropriately adjusted can operate as a gateway to economic activities in contexts which were previously viewed simply as transport corridors (go to http://www.cardeurope.demon.co.uk/rep1.htm for an example of technology discussions around Smartcards in Europe).

Much of the theoretical discussion around the new information communication technologies in Europe has taken one of two forms: either the concern has been with the development of e-business or the focus has been on the importance of e-information as a social force. For example, in the area of health care it has been argued that the e-information and e-advocacy aspects of health care are more important to health care in Europe than the e-business aspect of health provision (see for example, Information sharing - health care in europe http://special.northernlight.com/managedcare/forrester.htm

This focus on either e-business or e-information has resulted in the importance of the development of charging technologies within the realm of e-administration and e-governance being either missed or neglected. With e-charging technologies being available across a range of 'public services', there is a contest which is likely to grow between localities and larger and stronger public authorities. The distribution of technology and small local authority access to charging technologies created the ground in which relocalisation of public services can be supported. The growth of community nets within the European environment creates favourable conditions for the relocalisation of activities: the ability of larger institutions to readily collect resources through e-charging across greater institutional areas than was previously the case has the potential to contribute toward delocalisation of control and decision making whilst simultaneously enabling improvements in public services.

4. Networks and enclaves: strategic issues in transformation.

The new information technologies are essentially network technologies but network technologies can also play an important part in the shaping of enclaves. The reinforcement school of social theorists have drawn our attention to the extent to which new information technology can serve to reinforce existing patterns of contact and behaviour as opposed to open up the experience of the user to external views and visions: individuals who wished previously to participate in collective activities of any political persuasion would have had to interact with others of different persuasions in the journey to access those facilities, virtual journeys need carry no such requirement to encounter the other.

Similarly, virtual coordination can have the consequence of bypassing those who would if the activity were occurring in physical space be able to intervene. Whilst the reinforcement characteristics of the new information communication technologies are clearly present, it is also the case that accessing opponents' or neighbouring interests through the new information communication technology is a much easier business.

The virtual enclave or virtual network dynamics which may be in play need to be carefully considered as a matter of political, economic and social policy strategy in the transforming Europe. In the area of e-business, the Netherlands has already taken definite steps to launch its development as an e-business gateway to Europe (go to http://www.nfia.com/html/solution/ebiz_europe.html for information on the Dutch twinning strategy in respect of e-business). In its discussion of its role in European e-business, the Netherlands very much presents itself in terms of its national strategy as a player in Europe rather than as part of a network of e-European relationships. Locating an e-hub in the Netherlands has an enclave aspect even though the character of trade conducted will be be primarily network in character.

In a slightly different vein and perhaps because movement along physical networks is at the heart of the function being integrated at a European level, calls for Europe wide Transportation Information Exchange focus on the development of information which will service wide networks of relationships (see for example the discussion on transportation information exchange which was based in Eastern Europe http://www.tfhrc.gov/trnsptr/rttsep97/tr997p1.htm).

The coordination of hubs and corridors, enclaves and networks, centralised and distributed agents, governments and communities is happening in a Europe which has not yet attempted to categorise or map the various strands and dynamics of action which are in play. The data base of European activities and patterns of relationship which could provide some handle or intuition on the appropriate strategy for European integration in the context of globalising and distribute technology is not in place. Discussions of the transformation of political discourse, of governance strategies, of the character of public services and the appropriateness of charging have not kept pace with the fast developing technology which provides new challenges for social and political organisation. The technologies of direct democracy have arrived without a proper European consideration of their advent whilst the corporate capabilities of the new information communication and charging technologies have been routinely and unremarkedly integrated into European governance.

5. Conclusion: transformed contours and altered decision spaces.

It is clear that the new information technology has the potential to transform the contours of social, political and economic connections at each and every level (Delanty,1998). It carries within it the potential to alter decision spaces (Macdonald, 2000). Our tour of existing European projects which make use of the new information technologies spread across the extent of Europe and involved in routine coordination despite the geographical distances separating them suggests that Europe is indeed under transformation. The limits of that transformation and the extent of the alteration to traditional decision space is yet to be determined. The transformation of Europe's social and informaion contours have yet to be measured and the contribution of technology yet to be assessed.

References:

Castells, M.(1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell.

Ciborra, C.U.Ed. (2000) From Control to Drift :The Dynamics of Corporate Information Infrastructures, Oxford University Press

Delanty, G. (1998) 'Social Theory and European Transformation: Is there a European Society?'Sociological Research Online, vol. 3, no. 1, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/3/1/1.html

Duff, A. (2000) Information society studies. Routledge.

Grieco, M., Holmes, L. and Little, S.E. (Eds) (2000)Intelligent urban development: the emergence of wired government and administration. Special issue of Urban Studies.

Holmes, L. and Grieco, M. (forthcoming 2002) Relational identity and relational technology: implications for everyday life'in Grieco, M., Holmes, L and Hosking, D.M. (Eds.) Distributed technology, distributed leadership, distributed identity, distributed discourse: organising in an information age. Ashgate Press.

Macdonald K I (2000) 'Use and valuation: information in the city', Urban Studies, September

Perrow, C (1999) Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. Princeton University Press

Wells, C. and Grieco, M. (1993) Spinning a web? Networking the technical convergence of Europe. Organization Studies, Vol 14 Issue 5 pp 621-637

Web resources:

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/GC/eurgloss.html Glossary of the European Union and European Communities

http://www2.essex.ac.uk/elect/ Political Transformation and the Electoral Process in Post-Communist Europe