Challenges of the Global Information Society - review (week 4)
In this review I am gonna talk about Himanen's work: Challenges of the Global Information Society, which was written in 2004, and compare it with present situation in the world. In his work he introduced different challenges to the global development of the information society and suggested one alternative for meeting these challenges: the model of the information society combined with the welfare state.
In short, his idea of the information society can be defined as a creative society that is based on interaction. From the perspective of the author, the most important to the information society is not new technologies but a new way of doing things. This review comes to the conclusion that the most critical aspect in the development of the information society is the development of the deep-set structures of society, to which we must pay close attention.
To start our comparison, let's see first what author was focused on in his work.(numbers and italics used to bullet trends mentioned in the report)
TRENDS
In his work he mentioned some major trends that were in strong progress in 2004. For example, Increasing internation tax competition[1], which definitely takes place nowadays, some people would even say that it is necessary in order to allocate resources efficiently and to maximize global welfare.
The new global division of labour[2] is not only present nowadays, but for sure would be a part of our world for a long time, since it is easier for people to focus on specific tasks. This method not only increases the quantity of work, but also improves the quality of prodution. However, there are some disadvantages.
It was wisely stated that Population ageing[3] and The rise of bio-industries[7] trends are inectricanly linked and with help of the technologies by 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over. I would name it as a technological conundrum, since technology has had a significant impact on the rapidly growing aging population from both consumer and a commercial perspective.
As we can see from the report, author clearly stated how these trends are connected nowadays and how one leads to another, even though it was written almost 20 years ago. Population ageing[3] leads to problems in financing the welfare state[4], both because of an increase in direct expenses and a rising dependency ratio. At the same time, greater global tax competition[1] and the new global division of labour[2] put increased pressures on the welfare state[4].
Without a doubt I can say that The rise of cultural industries[6] has become true. TV, films, computer games, literature, design and learning materials all become available due to the digitalisation of content and the coupling of information technology, communication technology and media.
Over and over again we can see how these trends are connected and became true. Another example: the distortions of world trade and the knowledge divide between developing and developed countries leads to A deeping global divide[9] which was also mentioned in the report.
Even after reading this part of the report it is obvious how the author was accurate in his predictions.
KEY CONCEPTS
In Himanen's work was also presented the Pyramid of values (the list describes the values which could serve as the basis for the continued combination of the welfare state and the information society):
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