ABSTRACT
A widespread interest in, and optimistic attitude towards, the prom ises of new information technology as a means of enhancing regional development swept over the Western world and culminated in the mid 1980s. In particular the use of the new information technology seemed promising as a means of building communication networks in and be tween local communities in peripheral areas. The new information tech nology was used directly to link economic growth and local development, in France as part of a huge technological and industrial program, and in the Nordic countries as an element of revitalization of rural areas. These efforts were often given the form of social field experiments (Rieper, Blais and Larsen, 1988). In general it was a widespread assumption, if not a belief, that new information technology, especially telematics, could contribute to the development of peripheral regions all over the industri alized world (Heide, 1990).
