5 Arenas of Digital Change Box 5.3.1-3
Recommendations for action on the arena ‘Promotion of a collective global awareness’ >> Direct effects of digitalization (in the sense of networking, enabling a virtual online experience, etc.) can be expected in particular to promote an enhanced and enriched knowledge and understanding of problems. New forms of providing and experiencing information can therefore be expected to have positive effects on people’s motivation for political action and the acceptability of measures. The WBGU therefore recommends using digitalization to impart background knowledge and to reveal political action options. >> In the field of individual everyday actions, fewer direct effects can be expected from new forms of knowledge transfer; here, however, existing behaviour-changing techniques (such as tailored intervention, implementation
Box 5.3.1-4
Research recommendations for the arena ‘Promotion of a collective global awareness’ >> There is a particular need for research on the impact that educational games, simulations of complex problem solving, and virtual experiences of nature have on environment-friendly everyday actions and political activity. Up to now it has been unclear (even in the health field) which digital technologies and elements (e.g. increasing immersion and entertainment value, feedback) are particularly suitable for promoting knowledge of problems and for supporting action. >> Research is especially needed into the extent to which the effectiveness of measures (such as recommendations for action and feedback) can be transferred when they are carried out digitally. Studies have long since shown, for example, that particularly a combination of knowledge and
5.3.2 Digitalization and public discourse: the end of rational argumentation or the chance of a global agora?
210
‘Digital structural change of the public sphere’ – what at first might sound academic and complex describes a transformation that is very evident for many people: digital technologies are changing the way we communicate, how we perceive societal debates, and how we can take part in them (Fraser, 2010; Imhof, 2011; Ullrich, 2017). Worldwide, but by no means globally, many people use social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to privately and professionally communicate,
intentions, feedback) can be further developed and improved through digital implementation, and this should be promoted. >> In the 1990s, the possibility of determining one’s individual ecological footprint strongly motivated people to take individual action. Digitalization makes the step from footprint to handprint possible: today, it is possible to focus on the positive effects of one’s own sustainable consumer behaviour and on joint effects, such as reductions in CO2 emissions if recommendations for action are implemented alone or jointly (e.g. handprinter.org). This should receive funding, and existing instruments should be further developed and disseminated on the basis of evidence. >> Credible and reliable action knowledge and information in the sense of transformative education should be made widely available via the internet. This digitally available action knowledge should be used to develop applications that provide information on sustainable action alternatives tailored to a person’s individual life situation.
action promotes changes in behaviour (Hungerford and Volk, 1990): whether digitally acquired knowledge and digital action (e.g. IP gardens: Box 5.3.1-1) also promote changes in behaviour is yet to be researched. >> Especially in everyday life, the ability to directly experience and directly test new sustainable modes of behaviour are drivers of behavioural changes. Intensive research should therefore continue into new strategies for promoting knowledge for action and environmentally relevant norms and values in ways that are not digital. >> One overarching research question on the topic of networking concerns the possible promotion of empathy and/or compassion. According to the current state of knowledge, empathy can also lead to negative stress reactions – and thus to denial. Since compassion holds greater potential for positive reactions and commitment here, it is urgently necessary to clarify which are the best measures for digitally promoting compassion and, building on this, solidarity-based action.
receive and transfer information and messages. One third of Germans, almost half of Americans and two thirds of Brazilians used social media as a source of news in 2018 (Newman et al., 2018). In many cases, information is also provided by end users themselves (Dolata and Schrape, 2017). The media landscape is changing: a small number of successful digital platforms are gaining importance as new intermediaries (mediators) via new media and sales formats, while print circulations are declining and traditional business models are being eroded. Print media have increasingly come under economic pressure since the turn of the millennium (Figure 5.3.2-1). To put it bluntly, the reader’s letter as a format for