Digitalisation, between disruption and evolution

Abstract

This article questions the disruptive nature of the current process of digitalisation from a retrospective point of view. Four aspects of this process are considered: digitised information as a strategic economic resource; the nature and pace of industrial revolutions; the contested nature of the link between technology and employment; and the shift from flexible work practices towards virtual work. The article reviews some salient research findings from the past three decades and confronts them with recent publications concerning the future of work in the digital economy. It argues that the current wave of digitalisation combines, on the one hand, continuing trends in the analysis of the information society or knowledge-based society, and, on the other hand, significant breakthroughs the scope and impacts of which must be carefully assessed, avoiding any return to technological determinism.