Digital information and communication technologies can be seen as a threat to privacy, a step forward for freedom of expression and communication, a tool in the fight against terrorism or the source of a new economic wealth. Computerization has unexpectedly progressed beyond our imagination, from a tool of management and control into one of widespread communication and expression. This book revisits the major questions that have emerged with the progress of computerization over nearly half a century, by describing the context in which these issues were formulated. By taking a social and digital approach, the author explores controversial issues surrounding the development of this "digital revolution", including freedom and privacy of the individual, social control, surveillance, public security and the economic exploitation of personal data. From students, teachers and researchers engaged in data analysis, to institutional decision-makers and actors in policy or business, all members of today's digital society will take from this book a better understanding of the essential issues of the current "digital revolution".

'A must-read to anyone interested in the digital world.' - Valérie Schafer, Center for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg A concise history of the digital revolution and the lore, rhetoric, and debates that surround it. The Digital Revolution aims to tell a story, one of the most powerful ideologies of recent decades: that digitalization constitutes a revolution, a break with the past, a radical change for the human beings who are living through it. The book aims to investigate the origins of this idea, how it evolved, which other past revolutions consciously or unconsciously inspired it, which great stories it has conveyed over time, which of its key elements have changed and which ones have persisted and have been repeated in different historical periods. All these discussions, large or small, have settled and condensed into a series of media, advertising, corporate, political, and technical sources. Readers will be introduced to new, previously unpublished historical sources. The main aim of the book is to deconstruct what looks like a "natural" and incontestable idea and to help rethink digital societies today.

The final section considers the political ramifications of information technology for critical societal debates ranging from privacy to intellectual property. The contributors to the book map out how the digital revolution shakes up politics, creating new economic and political winners and losers. In order to do so, they connect theories of political economy to the implications of digital technology for international as well as national markets.Attempts to construct a framework for analyzing the international digital era: one that examines the ability of political actors to innovate and experiment in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constraints posed by digital technology. This book examines the reaction of nations to the dual challenges of globalization and technological change.How do high wage countries stay rich in a global digital economy? "How Revolutionary was the Revolution" constructs a framework for analyzing the international digital era: one that examines the ability of political actors to innovate and experiment in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constraints posed by digital technology. In order to assess the revolutionary nature of the digital era, this book takes four overlapping approaches. First, it examines the reaction of nations, specifically Finland, Japan, and emerging markets, to the dual challenges of globalization and technological change. This section identifies both successful and failed national experiments intended to deal with these dual pressures. Second, it assesses corporate attempts to leverage digital technology to reorganize work. A broad range of issues including off-shoring, open source production systems, and knowledge management are addressed. Third, devoting detailed analysis to the case of mobile telephones, the book offers insights into the political economy of market evolution in the digital era.

Business industries depend on advanced models and tools that provide an optimal and objective decision-making process, ultimately guaranteeing improved competitiveness, reducing risk, and eliminating uncertainty. Thanks in part to the digital era of the modern world, reducing these conditions has become much more manageable. Advanced Models and Tools for Effective Decision Making Under Uncertainty and Risk Contexts provides research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of effective decision making based not only on mathematical techniques, but also on those technological tools that are available nowadays in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as industrial informatics, knowledge management, and production planning, this book is ideally designed for decision makers, researchers, engineers, academicians, and students.

This edited volume brings together a group of international researchers and theorists from various intellectual and analytic traditions to explore the role uncertainty plays in creativity, learning, and development. Contributors to this volume draw on existing programs of research as well as introduce new and even speculative directions for research, theory and practice. Learning and life are filled with uncertainty. Although the experience of uncertainty can cause emotional discomfort or cognitive rigidity, uncertainty serves as a catalyst and condition for change. In this way, uncertainty represents a core facet in the interrelationship among creativity, learning, and development. Considerations for both the benefits and potential costs of uncertainty will be addressed in this volume with an aim of understanding how uncertainty can be better understood in light of creativity, learning, and development. Taken together this volume stands to contribute to our collective understanding of the role that uncertainty plays in learning and life and highlights how conceptualizing and studying uncertainty in new ways can promote positive and lasting change.

Despite uncertainty, people are born to act. Faced with environmental aggression and upheaval, inaction is more stressful than action. What choices, strategies or methods need to be implemented so that action is as effective as possible in terms of the objectives to be achieved? We should not delude ourselves about the term "good decision", which does not have much meaning when we act in an uncertain environment and when we know the weakness of forecasts. However, we must know how to act and be capable of taking the most appropriate action. Action in Uncertainty is a real guide to taking effective action when nothing is certain. According to the different types of uncertainty, what are the respective good uses of expertise and intuition? How do we motivate teams and avoid cognitive bias and manipulation? These themes are dealt with in clear and accessible terms to help decision-makers make the right choices in a world that is more uncertain than ever.

In an increasingly complex context of global pandemic, economic uncertainty, increased racial inequities, and a climate crisis, this practical guide for school leaders explores how capacity as learning at the individual, team, and organizational level can help schools become more agile and adaptive. Author James A. Bailey unpacks a new model of capacity building that combines learning process, leadership mindsets, and skills to enhance learning. This research-based book includes a "Diagnostic for School Learning Capacity" and "Team Considerations" to help school leaders and their teams launch further discussions and advance learning in their contexts. The tools in this timely book are designed to help school leaders handle the increasing volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world in which schools now exist.