An Information Society for Everyone?

In 2000, a government bill set out Sweden’s aim to become an information society for all its citizens, with an emphasis on building confidence, developing competence and providing access to new information and communication technologies (ICTs). This article grounds these policy objectives in a study of ICT use among Swedish working-class citizens. Following a discussion of the opportunities which ICT access and usage offer for the exercise of Swedish citizenship, the authors highlight respondent-identified obstacles that stand in the way of realizing this vision of the Internet as civic tool, including cost, workplace disparities, language competence and technical difficulties. The article concludes with several suggestions for overcoming these obstacles.