Research Recommendations
10
The WBGU sees technological progress not as an end in itself, but as a means of achieving societal goals. Against this background, it proposes combining sustainability and digitalization research in order to close knowledge gaps. It also presents concrete proposals for the further development of existing research structures and makes research recommendations on various aspects at the interface between digitalization and sustainability. The WBGU is oriented towards the questions of a global societal future within planetary guard rails. Research and innovation are of great importance in shaping a constructive role of digitalization for sustainable development. The WBGU sees technological progress not as an end in itself, but as a means of achieving societal goals, in particular a decent life for all. In line with its normative compass (Chapter 2), the WBGU therefore expressly welcomes the corresponding basic convictions of the BMBF’s digital strategy (2019) and their forthcoming implementation. In this report, the Transformation towards Sustainability is considered together with the power of digitalization and how it can be shaped. For sustainable development in the Digital Age, sustainability issues should be embedded in innovation and research policy on a broad societal level and should have international appeal on the sustainable design of the entire innovation system at both the national and European level. Transformation research aimed at better understanding the importance of digitalization for fundamental societal change processes plays an important role here, as does transformative research, which, with its research findings, initiates and catalyses transformation processes towards sustainable development (WBGU, 2011: 22ff., 322). The contribution of science lies not only in stimulating relevant discourses but also in providing sound technical foundations for them in order to develop new technologies for digitalized sustainability and prepare them for application. Although it is already understood that radical societal changes are to be expected on the way to the Great
Transformation towards Sustainability and to digital change, current research in the context of digitalization continues to focus on technological development, e.g. big data, artificial intelligence (AI) or autonomous systems – as shown by a mapping of the discourse landscape carried out by the WBGU (Box 10.3-1). The content and direction of this research are primarily determined by economic potential, not least in the context of international competitiveness. Ecological and social research issues, the latter with the exception of the thematic blocks of knowledge, education and digital literacy, are addressed to a much lesser extent. This also applies to the major questions of the future for the further development of society and people in the context of digital change (Chapter 7). Compared to the speed and breadth of digital change, there is therefore still not enough reliable knowledge about the impact of digital technologies on the Earth system, societies and people. As a result, socio-political discourses on the effects of digitalization – for example with regard to work in the future or energy and resource consumption – are characterized by contradictory assessments and a lot of uncertainty. Equally, research has only just begun on the potential and risks of digitalization for achieving the internationally agreed sustainability goals (UN Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs; UNGA, 2015) and the question of how digitally supported educational measures can promote knowledge and action for the Great Transformation towards Sustainability (UN, 2018c). This status quo suggests both a reorientation of the current research foci on digitalization towards sustain-
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