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On Tuesday 13 November 2018, the Department of Technology, Society & Economics is organising a public lecture with a book presentation by Peter Hagedoorn followed by a discussion:

The liquid society
How digitisation and globalisation are changing the world

In just a few decades, 'the economy' and 'society' have been digitised. Every citizen can know what is happening (anywhere in the world) at any time and is 'online' 24/7. All this has huge effects on the way societies function. No longer is the physical world of every day (the baker, the farmer) the most important, but the digital world actually forms the world in which more and more people literally work and partly live. There is, as it were, a digital layer coming over the classic world, connecting everything to everything and thereby also creating "shortcircuits" in the classic way of life.

Too little is still realised by policymakers, entrepreneurs and politicians that this new digital world is becoming a kind of (lawless) world of its own, literally turning everything upside down in the classic world. The "lawlessness" makes, on the one hand, powerful innovation impulses emanate from digitalisation and the internet. Because everything is being "shaken up", a lot is changing right now and opportunities are opening up that were not there before. On the other hand, digitalisation also creates room for abuse. Cybercrime is increasing at lightning speed, worldwide, and governments are increasingly discovering how to thwart other countries digitally. So: this digital world, just like a classical society, or a classical infrastructure, should be governed and ruled, because otherwise the consequences for society could be very great and perhaps disastrous.

In the book De vloeibare samenleving, however, Peter Hagedoorn makes it clear that classical 'solutions' do not work for the digitising society and that it must therefore be given its own administrative organisation, which will be different from the classical political structures. National borders no longer work in a digital world: just as environmental pollution does not stop at a national border, neither do bits and bites stop at the border: the digital world by definition creates an increasingly international and global world. It is time for politicians and policymakers to start working on new models of governance for this digital society.

We very much appreciate welcoming you to this evening. There is no charge for participation. The walk-in is from 19:45. You can register for this meeting via the website.

Speaker(s)

Peter Hagedoorn trained as a physical engineer and has followed a career in which he has alternately worked for the public sector and industry. For example, he worked at Shell, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Bull-Nederland, RAET, Hagemeyer and Océ. In addition, he was the first chairman of the CIO-Platform Netherlands, in which capacity he also served on the Board of the European CIO Association. He was later appointed Secretary-General of this organisation.

Documents