Surviving and thriving in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Digital skills for education and society

Abstract

This concise article maintains that, in times of structural and persistent crisis, Europe needs to effectively tackle the multiple challenges and existential fears by cultivating a strong and dynamical digital skills ecosystem, based on collective values and the fundamental liberal principles of co-creation, co-evolution, and collective intelligence, over against the obsolete principles of optimisation and top-down administration and control. This will arguably result in upgrading humanism (humanism 2.0) and democracy (democracy 2.0), and in boosting responsible innovation and, therefore, adaptiveness, as well as in translating technological progress into inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and risks into creative opportunities for all citizens.