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This module will adopt a geographical perspective to on what has traditionally been titled, Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STSS). In the tradition of Kondratiev, Kuznets, and Schumpeter, economic historians have long sought to identify waves and cycles of technological disruption and economic advancement. Today, there is emerging an increasingly influential claim that a fourth industrial revolution (also known as a cyber-physical revolution, Industry 4.0, and/or Society 5.0) is imminent, predicated upon computing power, digital connectivity, and a data revolution. As part of a wider suite of interventions designed to prepare their countries for the fourth industrial revolution political leaders across the world are increasingly leveraging Artificial Intelligence and computerised data analytics to help solve their most pressing economic, social and environmental challenges5. This course will acknowledge the benefits of new technologies but will also ask; how can the powerful ICT and data revolution be harnessed in a way which is democratic, ethical, underpinned by a social licence, and which maintains ongoing stakeholder– and public – trust?
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