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Why Digitalization Matters
Digitalization has many definitions that are perhaps too abstract to throw against the prevailing industrial-age attitudes. However, the pace of digital integration at all levels is fast becoming an indicator of measurable socio-economic success. Invisible influence emanates from regions (sometimes conveniently sized to constitute a state, such as Estonia, sometimes talent-magnetic locations, such as the Silicon Valley) who quickly digitalize not just industries and the economy, but also their practices and institutions of governance.
“Digitalization is the generic term for the Digital Transformation of society and the economy. It describes the transition from an industrial age characterized by analog technologies to an age of knowledge and creativity characterized by digital technologies and digital business innovation” — Def. by Innolytics
The secret of digitalized regions lies in aspiring for better global integration, not just providing benefits for their local citizens. As the author Rana Dasgupta has noted, this has been happening for years under the radar of the populist nation-state rhetoric recycling outdated slogans:
“[O]ur nation-state system is already in a crisis from which it does not currently possess the capacity to extricate itself. It is time to think how that capacity might be built. We do not yet know what it will look like. But we have learned a lot from the economic and technological phases of globalisation, and we now possess the basic concepts for the next phase: building the politics of our integrated world system.”
The pandemic has forced us to find technological alternatives to worn-out concepts that once dictated what constitutes presence, what generates trust, what nourishes professional and personal relationships, even what enriches our experience of life. With each day passing as legions of…
