Facing the Challenge of Risk and Vulnerability in an Information Society. IFIP Transactions A: Computer Science and Technology, A-33

This comment from one of the contributors pinpoints the target of this publication - to acknowledge vulnerability in our society and identify various means of coping with it.

The topic of social vulnerability may be approached from many different directions. For some people, the starting point is a particular system that, because of its size and complexity is unreliable and therefore generates vulnerability. It may be the design, implementation or integration of sophisticated technological devices within the system which reduces its reliability. From another perspective, social vulnerability is ultimately a subjective experience of individual people, the starting point being the quality of life of the individual, not the system. In this way, instead of facing uncertain reliability, society is confronted with certain unreliability - a general sensation of powerlessness and vulnerability in an age dominated by the use of complex information and communication technology. The issue has, at the same time, three distinct aspects: that of the reality of risk, of the perception of risk and of the ability of the individual to act.

The papers incorporated in this volume achieve a reconciliation of the different perspectives and work towards the provision of some tentative first answers to the major question posed: how do we meet the challenge of social vulnerability in an information age?