The international information economy monthly.

The liberalization of telecommunications in the USA and Western Europe has given rise to intense debate, both in political and in academic circles. This book gives an insight into related academic research carried out in several European universities and research institutes over the past few years. Various key aspects of this complex field have been studied, such as tariffs, international accounting rates, standards and quality of service, in order to contribute to the shaping of a European telecommunications policy for the future. The action of international organizations, and in particular the European Community, is also scrutinized.

As the telecommunication and information field expands and becomes more varied, so do publications about these technologies and industries. This book is a first attempt to provide a general guide to that wealth of English-language publications -- both books and periodicals -- on all aspects of telecommunication. It is a comprehensive, evaluative sourcebook for telecommunications research in the United States that brings together a topically-arranged, cross-referenced, and indexed volume in one place. The information provided is only available by consulting a succession of different directories, guides, bibliographies, yearbooks, and other resources. On the one hand, it is a directory that describes in detail the major entities that comprise the American telecommunication research infrastructure including federal and state government offices and agencies, and private, public, and corporate research institutions. On the other hand, it is a bibliography that identifies and assesses the most important and useful reference and critical resources about U.S. telecommunication history, technology, industry and economics, social applications and impacts, plus policy, law and regulations, and role in the global telecommunication marketplace. No existing guide covers all of these aspects in the depth and detail of this volume.

The contributors to this volume, all leading specialists in the field of EU studies, examine the trajectory of the EU and draw on the theoretical tools of historical institutionalism to assess the central political challenges facing the EU.

In this history of US-based direct broadcast satellite developments, the United States and other nation-states are shown to be the ultimate arbiters of their ongoing histories. In making this now unfashionable argument, Edward A. Comor directly challenges recent academic work that tends to privilege global processes over national, and argues that the contemporary world order is being shaped primarily by transnational rather than nation-state-based forces. In testing this orientation with empirical research on US foreign communication policy since 1960, Communication, Commerce and Power compels academics and policy makers to rethink commonplace assumptions about the characteristics and potentials of the contemporary and future international political economy.

From credit-card purchases to electronic fingerprints, the amount of personal data available to government and business is growing exponentially. All industrial societies face the problem of how to regulate this vast world of information, but their governments have chosen distinctly different solutions. In Protectors of Privacy, Abraham L. Newman details how and why, in contrast to the United States, the nations of the European Union adopted comprehensive data privacy for both the public and the private sectors, enforceable by independent regulatory agencies known as data privacy authorities. Despite U.S. prominence in data technology, Newman shows, the strict privacy rules of the European Union have been adopted far more broadly across the globe than the self-regulatory approach championed by the United States. This rift has led to a series of trade and security disputes between the United States and the European Union. Based on many interviews with politicians, civil servants, and representatives from business and NGOs, and supplemented with archival sources, statistical analysis, and examples, Protectors of Privacy delineates the two principal types of privacy regimes-comprehensive and limited. The book presents a theory of regulatory development that highlights the role of transgovernmental networks not only in implementing rules but also in actively shaping the political process surrounding policymaking. More broadly, Newman explains how Europe's institutional revolution has created in certain sectors the regulatory capacity that allows it to challenge U.S. dominance in international economic governance.

This is a comprehensive assessment of recent developments in the use of computers in qualitative research, an increasingly important and rapidly growing area of interest among social scientists and graduate students. Using Computers in Qualitative Research profiles and compares the principal programs available, identifying their particular strengths and limitations. It outlines the sorts of research problems that existing and forthcoming software can and cannot handle. The contributors also draw on their experiences of teaching computer-based techniques to suggest ways in which these could be incorporated into research methods training. [Reprinted with updated information on computer resources, 1992]