There have been numerous government initiatives in relation to providing quality services for disabled children and their families. One key area in need of further development, identified by both service professionals and service users, is the provision of accessible information for parents, carers and others who work with disabled children. This report addresses the issue by providing: . vbTab]an overview of current policy and practice in the provision of services for disabled children and their families;. vbTab]a 'how to' guide to best practice for the production of an information guide to...

The internet is an everyday part of our contemporary lives. This book explores how it is shaped and embedded within society, fostering new social worlds and ways of talking. Using a wide range of examples to examine economic, political and cultural issues, this book is crucial reading for all those studying society, media and technology.

This book focuses on how public institutions such as the police create new forms of technically mediated access to information and services in an environment that can be critical in terms of life, property and public safety. The development of public applications of technologies involves not only considering new configurations of technologies but also the social and symbolic aspects of services in relation to citizens lives and expectations. It thus puts the creation of new technical applications into an arena of changing social expectations and cultural trends. To explore the issues and...

The on-going constitutionalization of Europe has led to various changes in media and communications, opening up areas of debate regarding the role of traditional and new media in developing a specific European public sphere as part of the wider European Project. This timely volume addresses the little understood relationship between old and new media, communications policy at the European level, issues of regulation and competition within the EU, the role of the European Parliament in media policymaking and the questions emerging about the sustainability of traditional public service...

A critical introduction to the key processes and contexts of social change in contemporary society, combining a thorough grounding of key theorists with hot topics such the media, the environment and new technologies - ideal for students across the social sciences.

While there is a lot of talk about how we now live in a knowledge society, the reality has been less impressive: we have yet to truly transition to a knowledge society in part, this book argues, because discussion mostly focuses on a knowledge economy and information society rather than on ways to mobilize to create an actual knowledge society. That all may change, however, with the rise of open data and big data. This book considers the role of the open data movement in fostering transformation, showing that at the heart of any successful mobilization will be an emerging open data ecosystem...