Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Digital innovation and the fourth industrial revolution: epochal social changes?

  • Open Forum
  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

ITC technologies have come to comprehensively represent images and expectations of the future. Hopes of ongoing progress, economic growth, skill upgrading and possibly also democratisation are attached to new ICTs as well as fears of totalitarian control, alienation, job loss and insecurity. Currently, with the terms "Industry 4.0." and ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution” (FIR), public institutions (such as the national governments of Germany, Us, Italy, France, and Hollande), private institutions (the World Economic Forum, Hedge Funds, commercial banks), and literature refer to the inchoate transformation of production of goods and services resulting from the application of a new wave of technological innovations: interconnected collaborative robots; machine learning; Artificial Intelligence; 3D printers connected to digital development software; simulation of interconnected machines; integration of the information flow along the value chain; multidirectional communication between manufacturing processes and products (Internet of Things). According to the main representations of Industry 4.0. by private and public institutions, its effects are expected to be mainly positive, for what regards productivity, economic opportunities and the future of work. The positive potentials now attributed to the new cycle of innovation evoke and expand those attributed to the previous waves of innovation linked to ITC technologies, and, even before, to the transition from Fordism to Post-Fordism. However, these transformations have so far not achieved any of the promises they raised. Improvements for workers in terms of work conditions, work performance and work relationships cannot be determined by any technical innovation in itself, being technological innovation always socially shaped.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adler PS (1992) The ‘learning bureaucracy’: new United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. Res Organ Behav 15:111–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Arntz M, Gregory T, Zierahn U (2016) The risk of automation for jobs in OECD countries: a comparative analysis. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 189. http://www.oecdilibrary.org/docserver/download/5jlz9h56dvq7n.pdf?expires=1480994298&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=6DC4B241A91EE860DC391585FF43C51C

  • Askénazy P, Gianella C (2000) Le paradoxe de la productivité: les changements organisationnels, facteur complémentaire à l’informatisation. Économie et statistique (339–340), 219–242

  • Bakardjieva M (2005) The Internet society: the internet in everyday life. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes S, Green A, de Hoyos M (2015) Crowdsourcing and work: individual factors and circumstances influencing employability. Technol Work Employ 30(1):16–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartolini S (2000) The political mobilization of the European left 1860–1980. The Class Cleavage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bolognani M, Fuggetta A, Garibaldo F (2002) Le Fabbriche Invisibili. Struttura, sapere e conflitto nella produzione del software in Italia. Meta Edizioni, Rome

  • BDI (the Federation of German Industries), Berger R (2013) The digital transformation of industry. How important is it? Who are the winners? What must be done now? Available at: https://www.rolandberger.com/publications/publication_pdf/roland_berger_digital_transformation_of_industry_20150315.pdf. Accessed 19 June 2017

  • Bergvall-Kareborn B, Howcroft D (2013) The future’s bright, the future’s mobile: a study of Apple and Google mobile applications developers. Work Employ Soc 27(6):964–981

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briand L, Hodgson D (2013) Controlling the Uncontrollable: agile teams and illusion of autonomy in creative work. Work Employ Soc 27(2):308–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruns A (2007) Produsage, Generation X, and their effects on the democratic process. In Proceedings of the conference: Media in transition 5, MIT, Boston. http://web.mit.edu/commforum/mit5/papers/Bruns.pdf

  • Brynjolfsson E, McAfee A (2015) The second machine age. Work, progress and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. W. W. Norton & Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr N (2011) The shallows. What the internet is doing to our brains. W.W. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (1996) The rise of the network society. Blackwell, Malden

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (2000) The information age. economy, society and culture. The Rise of the Network Society. Vol I, 2nd edition. Blackwell Publishers

  • Chen J, Ross W (2007) Individual differences and electronic monitoring at work. Inf Commun Soc 10(4):488–505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins R (2013) The end of middle-class work: no more escapes. In: Wallerstein I, Collins R, Mann M, Derluquian G, Calhoun C (eds) Does capitalism have a future?. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 37–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Cushen J, Thompson P (2012) Doing the right thing? HRM and the angry knowledge worker. Technol Work Employent 27(2):79–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Degryse C (2016) Digitalisation of the economy and its impact on labour markets. Working paper 2016.02, Brussels, ETUI

  • Deming DJ (2016) The growing importance of social skills in the labour market. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ddeming/files/deming_socialskills_aug16.pdf

  • Dutch Project Team on Smart Industry (2016) Smart Industry. Dutch industry fit for the future. www.smartindustry.nl

  • Drucker P (2001) A century of social transformations: emergence of knowledge society. In: The Essential Drucker. HarperCollins, New York

  • Economic Forum (2016) The future of jobs. employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution

  • Edwards P, Ramirez P (2016) When should workers embrace or resist new technology? Technol Work Employ 31(2):99–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eurofound (2015) New forms of employment. Publication office of the european union, Luxembourg

  • Farrell D, Greig F (2016) Paychecks, paydays, and the online platform economy—big data on income volatility. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Institute. Available at:https://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/institute/document/jpmc-institute-volatility-2-report.pdf. Accessed 19 June 2017

  • Florida R (2012) The rise of the creative class–revisited: 10th anniversary edition-revised and expanded. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman C, Soete L (1994) Work for all or mass unemployment? Computerised technical change into the 21th century. Pinter Publishers, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Formenti C (2011) Felici e sfruttati. Capitalismo digitale ed eclissi del lavoro [Happy and Exploited. Digital Capitalism and Labour Eclipse]. Egea, Milan

  • Fuchs C (2010) Labor in informational capitalism and on the internet. Inf Soc 26:179–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs C (2012) Capitalism or information society? The fundamental question of the present structure of society. Eur J Soc Theory 16(4):413–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garibaldo F (2016). Industry 4.0. Position Paper

  • Garibaldo F, Bolognani M (1996) La Società dell’Informazione. Le nuove frontiere dell’informatica e delle telecomunicazioni. Donzelli, Roma

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleadle P, Hodgson D, Storey J (2012) ‘The ground beneath my feet’: projects, project management and the intensified control of R&D engineers. Technol Work Employ 27(3):163–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch-Kreinsen H (2014) Smart production systems: a new type of industrial process innovation. DRUID Society Conference 2014, CBS, Copenhagen, June 16–18

  • Hirsch-Kreinsen H (2016) “Industry 4.0” as Promising Technology: Emergence, Semantics and Ambivalent Character”. Soziologisches Arbeitspapier, pp 48

  • Holtgrewe U (2014) New new technologies: the future and the present of work in information and communication technology. Technol Work Employ 29(1):9–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermann M, Pentek T, Otto B (2015) Design principles for Industrie 4.0 scenarios: a literature review. Working paper no 1/2015. Technische Universität, Dortmund

  • Italian Government (2016) National Plan Industry 4.0. Available at: http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/documenti/Industria_40%20_conferenza_21_9. Accessed 19 June 2017

  • Jeske D, Santuzzi A (2015) Monitoring what and how: psychological implications of electronic performance monitoring. Technol Work Employ 30(1):62–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones S (1998) Cybersociety 2.0. Revisiting computer-mediated community and technology. Sage, London

  • Kelly K (1998) New rules for the new economy: 10 radical strategies for a connected world. Viking, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly E (2015) Introduction: business ecosystems come of age. Deloitte University Press, Westlake

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehdonvirta V, Ernkvist M (2011) Converting the virtual economy into development potential: knowledge map of the virtual economy. Washington, DC; infoDev/World Bank. Available at: http://www.infodev.org/publications. Accessed 19 June 2017

  • Lundin R, Söderholm A (1995) A theory of the temporary organization. Scand J Manag 11(4):437–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magone A, Mazali T (2016) Industria 4.0. Uomini e macchine nella fabbrica digitale. Guerini e associati, Milano

  • Marks A, Baldry C (2010) Stuck in the middle with who? the class identity of knowledge workers. Work, Employ Soc 23(1):49–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marazzi C (2008) Capital and language. Mit Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • McDowell L, Christopherson S (2009) Transforming work: new forms of employment and their regulation. Camb J Reg Econ Soc 2(3):1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Movitz F, Sandberg A (2009) The organisation of creativity: content, contracts and control in Swedish interactive media production. In: McKinlay A, Smith C (eds) Creative labour. Palgrave Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble DF (1986) Forces of production. A social history of industrial automation. Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlikovski WJ (1992) The duality of technology: rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organ Sci 3(3):398–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pongratz H, Vos G (2003) From ‘employee’ to ‘entreployee’: towards a ‘self-entrepreneurial’ work force. Concepts Transform 8(3):239–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabel C, Zeitlin J (1985) Historical alternatives to mass production: politics, markets and technology in nineteenth-century industrialization. Past and Present 108:33–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scarbrough H (1999) Knowledge as work: conflicts in the management of knowledge workers. Technol Anal Strateg Manag 11(1):5–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwab K (2015) The fourth industrial revolution: what it means, how to respond. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/. Accessed 19 June 2017

  • Stehr N (1994) Knowledge societies. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Toffler A (1979) The third wave. Bantam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • US Government (2016) Artificial intelligence, automation, and the economy. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/EMBARGOED%20AI%20Economy%20Report.pdf. Accessed 19 June 2017

  • Valenduc G, Vendramin P (2016) Working in the digital economy: sorting the old from the new. Working Paper 2016.3, European Trade Union Institute

  • Vercellone C (2008) La loi de la valeur dans le passage du capitalisme industriel au capitalisme cognitif. Eur J Econ Soc Syst 23(2):75–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Warhurst C, Thompson P (2006) Mapping knowledge in work: proxies or practices? Work Employ Soc 20:787–800

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wells D, Moorman R, Werner J (2007) The impact of the perceived purpose of electronic performance monitoring on an array of attitudinal variables’. Hum Resour Develop Q 18(1):121–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeow J (2014) Boundary management in an ICT-enabled project-based organising context. Technol Work Employ 29(3):237–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zysman J, Kenney M (2014) Sustainable growth and work in the era of cloud and big data: will escaping the commodity trap be our undoing? or where will work come from in the era of the cloud and big data? Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, BRIE Working Paper, 6

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Loris Caruso.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Caruso, L. Digital innovation and the fourth industrial revolution: epochal social changes?. AI & Soc 33, 379–392 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0736-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0736-1

Keywords

Navigation