Society 4.0

Since 2018, the Social Innovation Research Institute has convened the People and Technology Forum to explore Society 4.0* - the societal implications of living with and adapting to digitisation and new technologies. This is growing around us and incorporates a myriad of new and evolving elements, including data, automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning; it will inevitably lead to changes in society, including employment and the nature of work. 

The concept of Society responding to digitisation is an important aspect underlying our research — our program Public Interest Technology explores how best to put people and society at the centre of our technological choices and strive to ensure that the benefits of technology are widely shared.

*During 2020 the Japanese spearheaded Society 5.0, a fascinating, far-reaching but different concept that looks at blurring the frontier between cyberspace and physical space.