In order to understand how the dimension of work can evolve in the future, it is necessary to understand how
in that future
the general scenario of the Western Society
will have evolved its many specific aspects.
In other words, it is necessary to understand how the introduction of new tools (based, for example, on ICT), and the development of new ways of social interaction and new modes of work and consumption, is inducing a virtuous circle of evolution in the Society.
This is an evolutionary process that, among other things, derives from the new awareness of the Crowd of the effective possibility of satisfying new needs; and from new specific skills developed in the meantime by pro-active users. Factors that will lead to the development of further new Models (of life, production, work) and new tools.
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In the near future there will be a radical change, a paradigm shift in many areas of people’s lives that could approach the concept of “sustainable degrowth” (although this concept is strongly ideological – idealistic – it contains a significant possible vision of the evolution of current social trends).
< see “The need to understand the future scenario to understand the value of disruptive projects“ >
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In the analysis of evolution and current social trends one must consider that they are now only at the beginning of their development. And therefore that they, as a whole, will lead to a truly disruptive development of our Society.
In order to access a new Vision, we must understand that people in the near future will have not only new habits (lifestyles, pratices, etc …); but they will also have a new way of perceiving things (a new sensibility) and of reasoning; and therefore new ways of setting one’s own life and relationships with others.
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To understand what the Work will be in the near future, the following factors must be kept in mind:
► OBJECTIVE factors
These are the “material” factors that make change inevitable, since they put people in the absolute necessity of change.
Among these, a very important factor is the recession: the economic crisis of the Nations that leads, among other things to:
● a decline in the quality of public services: the drastically reduced possibility of financing structures and services by the public administration, leads to degradation of public services.
● a drastic reduction of people’s spending opportunities (due to a recession that many expect to be a chronic problem of our future).
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To understand the role of these “material” factors linked to the current socio-economic crisis, it is necessary to consider that
if they constitute serious disadvantages
in the context of the current “System” of super-consumerism,
in a new dimension of disruptive innovation they
CAN BECOME AN FACTOR POSITIVE
as regards the
HUMAN QUALITIES OF SOCIETY (AND EXISTENCE)
In order to understand our future, it is first necessary to understand how the critical factors of the current social system (Society, Market and Government)
will be transformed
BY THE INGENUITY OF PEOPLE
– with bottom-up trend –
in positive factors able
to guarantee a better quality of life
than that enjoyed until today.
It is one of the laws of Nature identified by Biology: the intelligence of living organisms is aimed at adapting to the environment in which they live. An aptitude that allows them to draw maximum from objective circumstances.
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This is the essence of disruption!
< see tag “Disruptive Innovation” >
< see “Manifesto of Innovation“ >
The specific factors that are transformed by the current disruptive change are:
► “liberated time” (from work) – the problem of less available work due to the crisis, it will be a condition that will be used by the ingenuity of Crowd to create new ways of life that can develop new qualities of existence.
The new free time available thanks to the crisis can in fact be used to develop new ways of life of high Social impact, starting from the emotional life or family (which, moreover, save money).
For example, parents with more free time available can take more care of their children (and house maintenance) and save money.
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To understand how this is possible, it is necessary to understand how, in parallel with this evolution (bottom-up) of costumes, there will be, top down, a disruption of the Market that will force the Players to develop products able to meet this new consumer need.
< see “The new trends as a remedy to the current crisis” in “Manifesto of Innovation (2): Innovation in the new post-industrial Market” >
In other words, easily maintainable products will be developed that will allow users – who are already developing new Do It Yourself skills – to manage such products on their own.
< see “The change of the current goals of the Market“ in “The new direction of the innovation” >
► from a money-based economy to a new form of non-money Economy.
The current crisis is leading to a lack of money in the pockets of people that prevents them from fulfilling essential and voluntary needs.
The bottom-up reaction of Crowd is leading to the development of new practices and new attitudes that, overall, shape a new kind of “Economy” in which the role of money progressively decreases. In it is gradually eliminated all that is more than the direct exchange: the medium money or the intermediation of third parties (importer, wholesaler, etc …).
● at a first level there is a disintermediation of the exchanges of the current forms of business (see for example Bla Bla Car and Uber.); and
● at a later level there are forms of self-organization by the Crowd of activities on the territory (in which money no longer has any role – see the organization of forms of production of goods and services as an alternative, for example, of increasingly less effective and more expensive public services).
This Social trend is favored by new attitudes that are developing in the Crowd as participated Governance and Voluntarism.
In this new context it is necessary to abandon the term Economy: there will not be a Sharing economy but a Sharing Society (talking about Economy in this case is a contradiction)
In the new dimension, our social system recovers the quality of the past, such as Volunteering and the participation of people in the organization of collective activities in the territory.
From the institutional point of view these new trends are embodied in the management of the activities on the territory in the Subsidiarity mode.
► CULTURAL factors
That is, those factors that derive from a reaction to the current crisis on the part of people who are forced to change their lifestyle because of the objective problems just analyzed; and on the other are attracted by the new possibilities offered by communication technologies (and also, obviously, from the examples of innovative practices already developed by other avant-garde people).
In this new social dimension some new new aspects of Western culture are developing spontaneously (which give a significant bottom-up impulse to change): this is a new attitude to the recovery of a quality of life lost in the last decades.
These new aspects are basically based on a new awareness and new skills (lost in the age of “specialization”).
► NEW INSTRUMENTS AND NEW PRACTICES
Today new tools and new practices lead people to change lifestyles, ways of consumption and work.
This change also occurs, in the Market and in Public institutions, towards hierarchical governance structures (already in development due to a pressing request by citizens, although those new forms of governance are not yet fully implemented).
< see “The need to update the Peters Principle “ >
Disruptive changes are leading, in the Market, to a revolution in production and distribution.
< see “How will the new phase of Industry actually be (4.0)” in “Smart Manufacturing, the misunderstanding on the term Industry 4.0” >
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New tools (and pratices induced by them) are, among others:
● ICT – the new interactive communication technologies are at the base of the (digital) technological revolution in the new Disruptive Age°. They allow people to communicate with each other directly from very distant locations. And also to interact within communities in an organized way.
● IoT – today the objects are smart and interconnected, and this radically changes the domestic life and work (the IoT allows access to the post-industrial production mode: Smart manufacturing).
● Blockchain, whose working principle creates a real revolution in the “administration” of interrelations between human beings, allowing them to free themselves from the need to have an authority that regulates their relationships.
● Crowdfunding (and Person-to-Person Banking).
● Open Knowledge allows to distribute the knowledge of Man (allowing to go beyond the Age of specialized culture). In this new dimension it is possible, among other things, Smart Manufacturing (with Production with Franchising-Transplant Factories in “distribuited infrastructure” that re-launch local economies – and define a Glocal dimension of the market).
<see “New Production / Distribution methods: Franchising-Transplant Factories” >
< see “The real conception of Glocal“ >
Other factors that allow access to post-industrial production forms are: Smart Manufacturing are Additive Manufacturing, Makers mode, Open Design, Open standard.
< see ”Innovation in the new post-industrial Market – Manufactory 4.0″ >
