scholarly journals Covid-19, Fourth industrial revolution and the future of elections in Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Joseph Olusegun Adebayo ◽  
Blessing Makwambeni ◽  
Colin Thakur

The initial focus of this study was on exploring the potential impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) on future elections in Africa. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is fundamentally changing the way we live, work and relate to one another. In its scale and complexity, 4IR could change humanity and human existence as we presently know it. The suddenness with which the novel coronavirus pandemic has shut down life across the globe, including the cancellation and postponement of scheduled elections, led to a realignment of the research goals. The study thus includes ways in which 4IR and unforeseen global emergencies like pandemics can impact future elections, with specific reference to Africa.

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-102
Author(s):  
Luke Tredinnick ◽  
Claire Laybats

This paper compiles a series of responses from key information professionals to the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Respondents were invited to answer the questions how the pandemic has impacted on their work, and how it might change the way of working in the future. Contributors to the article include Scott Brown, Steve Dale, Denise Carter, Alison Day, Hal Kirkwood and Emily Hopkins.


Author(s):  
Yelyzaveta Snitko ◽  
Yevheniia Zavhorodnia

The development of a modern economy, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, is impossible without the accumulation and development of human capital, since the foundation of the transformation of the economic system in an innovative economy is human capital. In this regard, the level of development and the efficiency of using human capital are of paramount importance. This article attempts to assess the role of human capital in the fourth industrial revolution. In the future, human talent will play a much more important role in the production process than capital. However, it will also lead to a greater division of the labor market with a growing gap between low-paid and high-paid jobs, and will contribute to an increase in social tensions. Already today, there is an increase in demand for highly skilled workers, especially in high-income countries, with a decrease in demand for workers with lower skills and lower levels of education. Analysis of labor market trends suggests that the future labor market is a market where there is simultaneously a certain demand for both higher and lower skills and abilities, combined with the devastation of the middle tier. The fourth industrial revolution relies heavily on the concept of human capital and the importance of finding complementarity between human and technology. In assessing the impact of the fourth industrial revolution, the relationship between technology, economic growth and human resources was examined. The analysis was carried out in terms of three concepts of economic growth, technological change and human capital. Human capital contributes to the advancement of new technologies, which makes the concept of human capital an essential factor in technological change. The authors emphasize that the modern economy makes new demands on workers; therefore it is necessary to constantly accumulate human capital, develop it through continuous learning, which will allow the domestic economy to enter the trajectory of sustainable economic growth. The need to create conditions for a comprehensive increase in the level of human capital development is noted.


PMLA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 640-646
Author(s):  
Cynthia Port

I noticed the dynamic relation between age and narrative the second time i read edith wharton's the house of mirth. on my first experience of reading the novel, as an undergraduate of eighteen, I was engaged by its thwarted love story and saddened by Lily Bart's tragic but honorable end. When I reread the novel in graduate school, however, I was about to turn twenty-nine, the age at which Lily's marriage prospects and high expectations for the future begin to fade. Although Lily is widely admired for her remarkable beauty, readers are alerted in the novel's opening pages to the incipient erosion of that beauty. Even as Lawrence Selden finds his eyes “refreshed” when he catches a glimpse of Lily at Grand Central Station, remarking that “he had never seen her more radiant” (37), he credits this impression to the way her dark hat and veil have temporarily restored “the girlish smoothness, the purity of tint, that she was beginning to lose after eleven years of late hours and indefatigable dancing” (38). While Selden silently muses about her age (“here was nothing new about Lily Bart. … [H]ad she indeed reached the nine-and-twentieth birthday with which her rivals credited her?” [37–38]), Lily declares that she's “as old as the hills” (38); she perceives that “people are getting tired” of her and saying she “ought to marry” (42). Lily is ambivalent about marriage as her “vocation” (as Selden puts it [43]) but undertakes this quest. By the end of the novel, having lost her social and economic standing and failed to secure a husband—and thereby a future—she puts her affairs in order and overdoses on chloral (43). Her age is certainly not the only factor contributing to her decline: Selden's continuing fascination with Lily affirms that she has remained dis-tractingly attractive (even if, perhaps, “ever so slightly brightened by art” [39]), and the novel attributes her social descent more directly to her financial circumstances than to her age. Nevertheless, the opening scene of The House of Mirth emphatically establishes twenty-nine as a precipice over which Lily Bart falls to her doom.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Andrzej Sokołowski ◽  
Małgorzata Markowska

The aim of the paper is to propose a composite indicator characterising the level of development of Polish NUTS 2 regions with respect to the implementation and results of the changes the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) entails, and to present a ranking of regions illustrating the degree to which enterprises have adjusted to the requirements of Industry 4.0. Data used for the calculations have been based on the results of an experimental research conducted by Statistics Poland (GUS) in 2019. Two methods for constructing the composite indicators have been used – classical and iterative which is to assess the indicator’s resilience to the influence of any potential outliers. 10 sub-criteria, covered by 21 variables have been taken into account. Opolskie region appeared to be the best NUTS 2 region in Poland in terms of the implementation of the requirements outlined by Industry 4.0. The evaluation of the proposed composite indicator will be possible when comparing it with the results of similar surveys carried out by GUS in the future.


Author(s):  
Idris Olayiwola Ganiyu ◽  
Ola Olusegun Oyedele ◽  
Evelyn Derera

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has resulted in the disruption of the world of work whereby technological innovation such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. These disruptions may be creative in that as some jobs are lost due to the development of artificial intelligence, new ones are created. This chapter explored the impact of disruptive technological innovations on the future of work. The skill gaps brought about by the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was also explored in this chapter.


Author(s):  
Alfred Kent Van Cleave

This chapter examines the issues of work satisfaction, employee well-being, and the future of work from the perspective of and as impacted by two prominent and contemporary models of corporate governance. It begins with an examination of work satisfaction and leadership, informed by motivation, leadership, and workplace attachment theories, then discusses how these theories have been impacted by changes in corporate governance. Present-day implications of corporate governance on work satisfaction and well-being are examined, followed by the implications of these considerations for the future of work in the fourth industrial revolution.


Author(s):  
Adeyinka Tella ◽  
Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi ◽  
Aderinola Ololade Dunmade

The chapter looked at records management in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) with the challenges and the way forward. The chapter discussed the industrial revolutions, records management, and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and described the advancement in records management in the 4IR based on the 4IR tools and technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), robotics, and big data. The chapter also identified and discussed the benefits of technological advancement in the management of records; challenges of records management at the wake of 4IR and charted the way forward. In the context of document and records management, and taking into account all characteristics of the 4IR technologies and tools as well as its underlying technologies and concepts, the chapter concluded that the 4IR tools can be used to save time to create and process records, secure records from being damaged or destroyed, confirm the integrity of records, among others.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document