Digitalisation and Social-Ecological Transformation

The information technologies of the digital revolution or digitalisation are driving economic growth and social acceleration. Digitalisation spreads in all spheres of society, in everyday life, in economic production, in policy processes, in science and research, and in all forms of the service economy; insofar it differs from the earlier forms of technological innovation that were limited in their application. Digitalisation as part of two contrasting processes, acceleration and societal transformation, is the dilemma of sustainable development. More than other processes of modernisation, digitalisation is seen as creating systemic risks and threatening the sustainability transformation, although it may in some components support the transformation.