New anthology on the possibilities and challenges of digitalisation
The Digitalisation Commission, established by the Swedish government in 2012, has published an anthology where scholars and experts writes on how it is that Sweden has been so successful in digitization and what can be done to continue that success. Among the authors are Anders Ekholm and Bi Puranen, both from the Institute for Futures Studies.
"Om Sverige i framtiden - en antologi om digitaliseringens möjligheter" addresses issues relating to, among other things, the economy and growth through urban development, the future of health care and integrity, and the conditions for social cohesion and democracy. The authors include among others Anna Felländer, chief economist at Swedbank, Carl Benedict Frey at the University of Oxford who has written about what jobs might disappear due to automation, Jesper Strömbäck, Professor of media and communication and journalism at Mittuniversitetet as well as former Secretary General of the Government's Future Commission, Bodil Jönsson, author and former professor of Rehabilitation Engineering at Lund University, and Johanna Koljonen, critic, writer and media analyst.
The anthology was presented Monday, June 29 in Almedalen and can be downloaded here in Swedish (pdf)
Bi Puranen, general secretary of the World Values Survey (WVS), writes in her chapter "Our values drive the digital world" about how values can drive social change. Based on data collected by the WVS she can, among other things, state that people who frequently uses the Internet share many values.
Values like independence, creativity and tolerance are also increasingly important as values parents want to convey to their children. This is also pointed out as part of the reason why Sweden does so well in digitalisation. In her chapter Bi also writes about how digital media can and has been used in situations of conflict and by criminals. For while technology enables rapid dissemination of information, it has also been used by Syrian rebels who use Google Maps and satellite imagery to correct gunfire and by Afghan Talibans who use SMS to reach people.
Anders Ekholm, vice president of the Institute for Future Studies, writes in his chapter "The biological community" that it is time to get rid of our view of society as a machine and of man as a rational creature. This view leads us to believe that we can control and understand how society, businesses and people function, a mistake which often leads to undesirable results.
Digitalisation allows us to see these phenomena as they are, complex and unpredictable. With access to large amounts of data and machines that can handle them, we can significantly improve the way health care works for example, making it more personalized and efficient.
Anders says that commercial businesses are usually good at using digitalisation since it carries many advantages. However, tax-funded businesses need to make big changes in order not to fall behind. In order to do this a lot of our legislation needs urgent changes.
