4. Challenges of the global information society - Review

Review

Challenges of the information society has been written in 2004 by Pekka Himanen.

In his report Pekka is writing about the challenges that are facing the information society and challenges that will become especially prevalent by 2010.
Actions that can be taken to reduce the toll of these challenges on the society are also discussed by the author.

Ten global trends taking place are highlighted:
1. Increasing international tax competition and countries competing for investments with each other.
2. The new global division of labour when production is moving to the countries with cheaper labour.
3. Population ageing, that is especially prevalent in Europe and some other regions.
4. Increasing pressures on the welfare society by ageing population.
5. The second phase of the information society: technological to social development.
6. The rise of cultural industries particularly TV, literature, games and similar fields.
7. The rise of bio-industries such as medicine and genetic engineering.
8. Regional concentration and growing urban population.
9. A deepening global divide.
10. The spread of a “culture of emergency” , meaning increased social tensions, pace of life and growing instability.

Author is stating that welfare state might fall, if nothing is done to combine the welfare state and information society. One of the ways to avoid the fall is to revise policies in a proactive way.

Author is highlighting that policies should be changed applying the value-based management. Ten values are highlighted as basic blocks and should be considered when combining the information society and welfare state: caring, confidence, communality, encouragement, freedom, creativity, courage, visionariness, balance and meaningfulness.

Proposed key concepts of social development keep the values intact and theoretically successfully combine the welfare state and the information society.

1. Creative economy. Since the tax competition and division of labour, developed states would need to increase productivity through innovation.
This can be achieved by enhancing participation in sectors where creativity makes a difference and where developed states have a competition leverage for example IT , cultural and medical sector. Author highlights that not only expertise and creativity but also flexible and creative business models and marketing will make a difference in such development.
In addition, creative society model can be encouraged by applying tax rates that encourage work, and particular management and work culture that will increase the meaning of work for people through more diversity, meaningful projects and strong communities.

2. Creative welfare society. In order to alleviate the pressure of ageing from the welfare state, fare society has to prevail and equal opportunities to everyone have to be provided. This can be promoted by both public sector and private sector.
The basis for innovations in both sectors are high-quality education and training. Quality school education has to be provided where schools are focused not only on passing the information but also on teaching confidence, social and problem solving skills. It is also important to provide free access to information for the citizens, so that everyone can participate in continuous education.

3. Humanly meaningful development. Due to increasingly unstable work relationship, market volatility and faster pace of life human sustainability is an increasingly crucial question. In order to provide the sustainability, work-life balance , flexible working hours, mental and physical balance shall be promoted.

4. Global culture. There is a need for higher immigration, that will contribute to acquiring new qualified force and contribute to ageing decrease. For this to succeed people need more open-mindedness and tolerance. One of the ways to increase immigration is by welcoming foreign students. For businesses the challenge will be both to attract foreign experts but also to keep local experts from leaving. Reasonable taxation might help to reduce emigration.

Reflection

13 years later after the report has been written the trends highlighted by author are still taking place on a smaller or larger scale. Cultural industries and global divide keep growing, urban population continues to surge (54% of people living in cities in 2016). Both technological and social developments are taking place, however, technology often plays a role in promoting some of the social changes.

Some of the proposed development models have been taking place across the globe.
For example, many innovative companies, especially in the IT sector, now provide possibility for flexible working hours, innovative offices as well as challenging and meaningful environments.

The need for education reform has been and still is a topic for debates, but the need for change is recognized widely. Overall education has been slow to change, but small steps and measures are being taken to promote more innovative approaches in schools and universities.

Immigration continues to rise, however, in some countries it results in experts' drain. Highly educated employees often emigrate in search for better salaries and levels of life abroad. Increasing open mindedness, however, has still a long way to go. Many perceive immigration to their home countries negatively and would like immigration to decrease.


References:
https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/tietoaeduskunnasta/julkaisut/Documents/tuvje_1+2004.pdf
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/9839334/Education-reform-is-not-only-necessary-it-is-essential.html
https://www.oecd.org/els/mig/World-Migration-in-Figures.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2017/09/09/the-best-way-to-help-children-recovering-from-hurricane-harvey-now/#57e8d5fd24b4