Digital transformation – advantage for all?

Digital progress pushes us forward. Yet a good digital society is more than technology. Democracy, freedom, justice and solidarity—the fundamental values of social democracy—build the fundament of #digidemos.

That was the main message at #digidemos, Congress on Democracy and Digitalisation by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung that took place on 20 June in Berlin. Hundreds of participants arriving from all over Europe, civil society representatives, activists, journalists, politicians, and academics, contributed to 12 sessions organized around three topics: democracy, the public, and work. The goal: to lay the foundations for a progressive debate about fundamental rights, the network, media, and the future of work.

“We want to discuss with masterminds and nonconformists how digital transformation can prove advantageous for all people,” announced the organizer, the Media Policy Unit at the Political Academy of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, who plan to host a similar event in 2018.

FES Connect attended the event and interviewed one of the contributors to the discussion track on work and digital casualisation. In this video interview, Henning Meyer, research associate at the Public Policy Group of the London School of Economics, charts ways we can moderate how technology is applied in the real world, its effects not just on the future of work but also that of our societies.

Technology brings many empowering elements for the individual, but at the same time we should find ways how to use it for empowering collectivism, the bedrock of society and the social market economies, suggests Henning.

Watch the video as we look forward to a #digidemos 2018!