Digital society
In this week's column, David Souter explores how in the digital world we often assume that digital access improves access to services. And so it does – for most people in most cases, but not for all in all. Those designing policies and plans for digital access to public (and private) services should remember always that the real aim is access to services not digitalisation, he states.
The world thirty years from now will be as different from today, in terms of its technology, as today’s world is from that of the early twentieth century. Digitalisation’s changes will interact with others, especially with climate change and with the shifting sands of geopolitics.
What do we mean, at a time of growing environmental crisis, by responsible innovation?
Predicting the future’s hard but there are two global trends that seem fairly certain. Digitalisation and climate change are likely to shape our future more than anything else that we can see at present. How are they linked? Or, to put it another way, why aren’t they linked more?
This week, I’ll comment on a new view of long-term employment and unemployment in the digital age, from Oxford economist Daniel Susskind. A World Without Work, he calls it. I’ll agree with his core arguments but challenge the optimism of his conclusion.
“Human Rights in the Age of Platforms”, published by the MIT Press, examines the human rights implications of today's platform society. APCNews interviewed Rikke Frank Jørgensen, editor of the publication, who provided insight on the reflections and recommendations captured in this book.
Two things are clear: how much has changed in terms of the technology and how little’s changed in public discourse.
What's happening to employment? Last week I looked at the big picture. This week's focus is on platform jobs, ‘the gig economy’.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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