Reframing sociotechnical imaginaries: The case of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110135
Author(s):  
Paulo Nuno Vicente ◽  
Sara Dias-Trindade
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Sociotechnical Imaginaries ◽  
World Economic

In recent years, a Fourth Industrial Revolution emerged in public discourse as a narrative of exceptional societal disruption. At the core of this conceptual construct, led by the World Economic Forum, rests a sociotechnical imaginary of future essentialism, based on the revolutionary potential of digital, biological and physical innovations. This article addresses the lack of studies assessing the dynamics between the institutionalisation and the public performance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution concept through news media. We present the results of a quantitative content analysis of how the topic has been covered (frames, sources, tone) by the Portuguese national circulation press (2013–2020). This exploratory case study informs a proposal for an epistemic and methodological articulation between the theoretical frameworks of sociotechnical imaginaries and of media framing.

The Need for Speed – Technological Acceleration and Inevitabilism in Recent Danish Digitalization Policy Papers

SATS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Mads Vestergaard
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Economic Values ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Sociotechnical Imaginaries ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

Abstract The article explores whether sociotechnical imaginaries of digitalization as inevitable accelerating development can be traced in Denmark’s official policy papers concerning digitalization 2015–2020. It identifies imperatives of speed, acceleration and agility equal to what has been described as a corporate data imaginary as well as tropes of an imaginary of the fourth industrial revolution and inevitable exponential technological development and disruption. The empirical analysis discovers a shift in the studied period mid-2018, before which inevitabilism is prominent and after which the focus on non-economic values increases and the aim of influencing the development, instead of adapting to it, emerges. The article then addresses how imperatives of acceleration and narratives of inevitabilism may be considered problematic from a democratic point of view employing Hartmut Rosa’s critical diagnosis of the acceleration society and the notion of discursive closure. Finally, it discusses the empirical findings in light of technological determinism and constructivism inherent in the notion of sociotechnical imaginaries and introduces a sociotechnical selectionist theory allowing both for human agency in technological development while also providing a mechanism for explaining the emergence of law-like technological trends, as Moore’s Law, at macro level.

Mental Health Ontologies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janna Hastings
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Public ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Way

Mental health presents one of the defining public health challenges of our time. Proponents of different conceptions of what mental illness is wage war for the hearts and minds of patients, practitioners, policy-makers, and the public. Debate and fragmentation around the nature of the entities that feature in the mental health domain divide resources and reduce progress. The way mental health is publicly discussed in the media has tangible effects, in terms of stigma, access to healthcare and resources, and private expectations of recovery. This book explores in detail the sorts of statements that are made about mental health in the media and public reporting of scientific research, grounding them in the wider context of the theoretical frameworks, assumptions and metaphors that they draw from. The author shows how a holistic understanding of the way that different aspects of mental illness are interrelated can be developed from evidence-based interpretation of the latest research findings. She offers some ideas about corrective, integrative approaches to discussing mental health-related matters publicly that may reduce the opposition between conceptualisations while still aiming to reduce stigma, shame and blame. In particular, she emphasises that discourse in the media needs to be anchored to an overview of all the research results across the field and argues that this could be achieved using new technological infrastructures. The author provides an integrative account of what mental health is, together with an improved understanding of the factors driving the persistence of oppositional accounts in the public discourse. The book will be of benefit to researchers, practitioners and students in the domain of mental health.

scholarly journals Public Discourses on (Sectoral) Energy Policy in Switzerland

2021 ◽  
pp. 313-343
Author(s):  
Lena Maria Schaffer ◽  
Alessio Levis
Keyword(s):  
Energy Policy ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Transition Policy

AbstractEnergy transitions are based upon policy choices of sovereign nation states. Hence, politics plays a role in determining which policies governments implement and which sectors are targeted. Our chapter looks at the evolution of public discourse on energy policy as one important factor reflecting policy discussion and contestation within the political arena. Our descriptive and explorative analysis of the early public discourse in Swiss energy policy between 1997 and 2011 contributes to three main issues. First, it makes a case for the disaggregation of energy policy and its public perception to add to our understanding of energy transition pathways. We argue that looking at sectoral discourses as well as sectoral policy outputs allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the idiosyncrasies of Swiss energy policy regarding temporal as well as sectoral variation. Second, an increased politicization of energy policy may affect future policy choice, and thus any account on energy transition policy needs to scrutinize potential feedback effects from policies that manifest via policy discourse. Third, and on a more methodological stance, we argue that our approach to use news media as a representation of the public discourse via structural topic models can help to explore and explain the evolving national policy priorities regarding energy transition.

scholarly journals Post Human Craft: A Humble Attempt to Reorient Makers to the Inevitable

Cubic Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 150-165
Author(s):  
James Stevens ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
First Century ◽  
World Economic Forum ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
Digital Algorithms ◽  
Waking Up

Nearing the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century many craftspeople and makers are waking up to the inevitable reality that our next human evolution may not be the same, that this time it could be different. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum refers to what we are beginning to experience as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Schwab 2017, 01). Schwab and his colleagues believe that this revolution could be much more powerful and will occur in a shorter period than the preceding industrial and digital revolutions. This revolution will cause a profound change in how we practice, labour and orient ourselves in the world. Rapidly evolving technologies will proliferate the use of robotics and personalised robots (co-bots) that can sense our presence and safely work alongside us. Digital algorithms are already becoming more reliable predictors of complex questions in medicine and economics than their human counterparts. Therefore, the gap between what a computer can learn and solve and what a robot can do will quickly close in the craft traditions. This article will engage in the discourse of posthumanism and cybernetics and how these debates relate to craft and making. Intentionally this work is not a proud manifesto of positions, strategies, and guidelines required for greatness. Alternatively, it is a humble attempt to reorient makers to the necessary discourse required to navigate the inevitable changes they will face in their disciplines. Thus, the article seeks to transfer posthumanist literary understanding to intellectually position craft in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

How Media Shapes the Public Discourse and Influences Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
Alonzo L. Plough
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Inaccurate Information ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
Multiple Media ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many

This chapter describes the multiple roles of modern media in determining not only what consumers know, but also how and what they think. The exponential growth of ideologically driven cable channels and social media, dovetailing with cutbacks in newspaper staffing and coverage, point to the many ways that the power and reach of media are shifting even as they continue to reshape American society and norms. In this environment, multiple media compete for viewers, readers, and listeners who will click on their websites, buy their products, sign their petitions, and often accept their spin, especially if it reinforces personal perspectives. Thoughtful information about complex public health issues is easily lost in that context, leading too many people to base their decision-making on incomplete, biased, and even inaccurate information. For the news media to help build a Culture of Health, people need to understand how it works, what it does, and how it can be used for widespread benefit.

SHORT-TERM, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL, FORECAST OF THE FUTURE OF WORK

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (XIX) ◽  
pp. 313-331
Author(s):  
Andrzej Świątkowski
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
New Economy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
World Economic Forum ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Technological Transformation ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
The Future ◽  
World Economic ◽  
Modern Technologies

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) dynamically shift the line between the work performed by humans and those performed by machines, technologies, algorithms and artificial intelligence. The author examines The Future of Jobs Report 2018 published by Centre for the New Economy Society of the World Economic Forum. He tries to argue that the current technological transformation in the next five years, 2018-2022, managed wisely may improved the quality and productivity of work performed by human employees. The problem is that many of employees afraid that robots, computers, modern technologies an AI will eliminate jobs performed by human beings. The Author argues that technology eliminates jobs, not work

scholarly journals The Disruptive Futures of Education—Post-COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 407-412
Author(s):  
Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Inflection Point ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
World Economic Forum ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic

AbstractThe year 2020 is mostly known to many as an inflection point. A metaphorical vision to look far ahead, with clarity, taking on the various “disruptions” that have been much touted, namely, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Since its pronouncement, four years ago, during the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, the world of higher education has been inundated with demands to introduce the so-called ‘Education 4.0’.

scholarly journals Some proposals of creative measures for the production of original print media content

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. first
Author(s):  
Thuy Cam Huynh
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
News Media ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Fourth Power ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Print Advertising ◽  
The Public ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
Rich Information ◽  
The Right

The declining trend in print advertising revenue over the past decade has become more serious since Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The quick spreading of Corona virus over the world has resulted in further decrease in this area's revenue by 30% to 50%. How can the so-called ``fourth power'' be able to recover after the epidemic crisis? How can press & news media maintain operations and sustainably develop in order to serve the public and the society, especially in the context of rapid explosion of social networks and multi-interaction channels which challenge mainstream journalism? Being faced with this situation, the article proposes a number of creative solutions for the production of innovative media content including surveying, doing research on readers' preferences to identify "golden'' readers segment; filtering and selecting unique, attractive and attention-catching content; taking advantage of "social networks" to deliver rich-information content to reach readers instantly, to choose the right form and the right time to publish information. The author hopes that this article can contribute a small part to press and news media to preserve trust from and connection with readers; thereby, meeting their increasingly diverse needs in the current Industrial Revolution 4.0.

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