4G ­ Social Aspects of the Next Generation of Communications Technologies. An analytical-explorative report

The mobile phone seems to be the most adequate communications technology for a globalised world where mobility, flexibility and constant communication flows not only connect people in business, politics and organisations, but also private relations are renewed and reproduced with the help of the mobile phone. The aim of this report is to give a theoretical framework for the understanding of the social context, in which the new generation of mobile phones, the 4G, will be implanted.

This report will first deal with the relation of society and technology, starting with the premise of co-evolution of society and technology. Three different sociological diagnosis of recent societies will be presented (2.). The second part will deal with the user, practices and the 4G technology. It is necessary to contextualise the user and the following realms will be discussed with some reference to current scenarios: communication and information, cultural differences, age as a factor (teenager and elderly people), risk awareness (3.). In the last part three new applications and services, developed by the team of the JADE project, build the centre. Three core subjects that will challenge the new technology (control/surveillance - personalisation, cooperation - trust, privacy ­ public) will provide background information for the discussion of the examples(4.).
The report is part of the JADE project, financed by SAMSUNG and the report is, til further notice, confidental.