Rethinking Economics in the Digital Age
Most of us are used to friends, family, politicians and industries talking about The Economy. From political parties around the world to the financial sector we hear talk about managing, growing, or unleashing the economy. This is a fairly new sociocultural concept and we may start talking about it in new ways as we move into the Digital Age.
First, let’s look at how we talk about an economy, about economics with a little history. Then we’ll look at what may change in terms of how we talk about and view economics in the near future. As a sociocultural construct influenced by how societies use digital technologies.
It is not digital technologies that are changing economic models and systems. It is how culture is using these technologies.
Talking about The Economy as we do today didn’t really start until around the mid to late 1950s. And didn’t really gain much traction as such until the 1970’s and into the 1980s.
Prior to The Economy being a thing, a sort of social object, what we now just call economics, was seen as a branch of social philosophy. It was an arena of moral and political thought. It was more than just a branch of mathematics and as a result, many women wrote about economics.
Over time, this philosophical bent turned more towards a technocratic thing. Economics, an economy, could be measured, studied and managed. This is a perfectly fine evolution of a science. All sciences evolve.
Economics is an element of culture, like political systems, belief systems, aesthetics (art, architecture) and social governance. All elements of culture are constantly changing. Economics is not immune. In fact, the field of economics may well be in line for a period of very deep and profound changes. In a good way.
Economics may also become philosophical again and take on more social characteristics as capitalism and financial systems undergo massive transformations as well.
Why Is Economics Changing?
One good word is data. The way we are creating more data and the sheer volume of it and how we monetize data.
Climate change is another as we begin to see disruptions in supply chain economics due to changing weather patterns and increasing devastating weather like droughts, flooding and so on.
Then there is the current shift in geopolitics where the liberal system seems to be shifting towards a more values-based system. Democracy versus autocracy. This impacts the flow of capital and re-aligns economies as a result.
While cryptocurrencies are faltering in a bitterly cold winter of their own making, digital currencies are being explored. Then there’s blockchain for contract management. The idea of a decentralized internet. Right now these are all experiments and arguments. Something sociocultural systems have done for thousands of years. All we can say is that they will influence changes.
Economics in the Digital Age
So what may change in economics? One of the biggest recent changes in the world of economics was the introduction of behavioural economics. The inclusion of how and why humans do the things they do in terms of production and consumption. The first signal of social, moral and philosophical thinking coming back to economics. Everything is a remix isn’t it?
We are also learning how to harness data and turn it into information and then knowledge in better ways. Part of this is infonomics, a word coined by Douglas Laney in his book of the same title. Now taught in universities. This could add trillions of dollars in corporate valuations.
Automation in manufacturing and even increased automation and data collection in mining of and exploration of, raw materials means better quantification and thus, measurement.
As analytics tools evolve (a great opportunity for innovation) so will economists have better tools to gain insights from that data that can be used in novel ways.
As we look at the failings of the current forms of capitalism, a re-alignment is coming, demanding capitalism return to what it was originally designed to do; deliver a social good, not shareholder dividends over the social good.
Economics is, at its heart, a social science. And rather than being known as the dismal science it may soon be a much brighter one. Perhaps a wise science?
It is likely that economics will become more deeply intertwined with sociology and anthropology as those two fields are also undergoing fundamental changes.
We are, as a species, beginning to understand the interconnectedness of everything; environment, capitalism, political systems, architecture, music and the other arts. Economics may well play a role as a steward, evolving a new set of intellectual tools and mental models.
About The Author
Giles has lead groundbreaking netnographic (digital) research projects around the world on public and foreign policy issues. For the United Nations, Freedom House, Global Affairs Canada, Medecins Sans Frontiers and others. He lead the first analysis on how online hate speech turns to political violence in the streets in Africa in 2011. He’s lead other digital research projects in Haiti, Iraq, European and Latin American countries.
Giles Crouch thought getting an education in cultural anthropology would lead to a job. It did. In marketing, which is actually quite logical. So he spent 20 years bringing technology products (hardware and software) to market around this wonderful world. Then he figured out that culture, applied to what was going on in our digital world, could bring value to society and industry.
Today he coaches organisations large and small, around the world, on continuous innovation and UX research. Giles is regularly interviewed by news media around the world on the intersection of culture, society and technology. He has been part of 4 tech startups with 3 exits and one shutdown. He’s delivered over a hundred speaking, keynote and workshops over the past decade.
