This irreplaceable factor

This irreplaceable factor

Global Digital Humanitie. Mondragon University

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Opinion article published in El Correo

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Never before in the modern era has our development model been so questioned. The pandemic has exposed its feet of clay, undermining certainties and unraveling the seams of our time. It is not a new debate: last June marked the 30th anniversary of the Rio Summit, at which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed. Since then, we have witnessed a succession of different COPs that have followed that summit, starting with COP1 in Berlin in 1995, and moving on through COP3 (from which the Kyoto Protocol emerged) and COP21 (which launched the Paris Agreement) to COP26 in Glasgow last autumn, which satisfied almost no one and contributed to further propagating the feeling that we are running out of time. 

Meanwhile, there are timid movements that try to curb the inertia of events: in December of 2019, the European Commission approved the European Green Deal, which was applauded by banks, construction and energy companies, but branded as insufficient by environmental groups. It was followed by the presentation a year ago of the New European Bauhaus initiative, which aims to embody the European Green Deal; it is an initiative that speaks of more sustainable and inclusive cities, the coordination of the local and the global, transdisciplinarity, participation, the promotion of interconnected transformations, a change of mentalities and perspectives, and an imperative need to create new meanings.

The initiative has generated reactions of all kinds and there is no shortage of those who believe it to be yet another greenwashing strategy. In any case, the interesting thing about this subject is that it is clear that we urgently need to design new ways of functioning, of organizing ourselves as a society. One of the key aspects of this debate focuses on the role of automation, the future of work and the role of people in such a scenario: the world of work will experience disruptive changes, caused mainly by digitalization and the green transition, and the combined impact of these challenges will require fundamental transformations in order to adapt work systems, innovation, learning and social protection to the new context.

A publication by the LANKI Institute of Cooperative Studies (Mondragon University) confirmed just over a year ago that sustainable products and services, digitalization and mobility will take on particular importance in the future of the territory's industry, and also underlined the value of intangibles (the way in which companies are organized and their relationship with their environment) as one of the most obvious areas for improvement.
For his part, Marc Vidal speaks of an imminent fifth industrial revolution, of connected factories in which “the machine already thinks in terms of logistics and efficiency” and almost “no human contribution is necessary in that sense.” Vidal however, points out one strategic aspect in which our sons and daughters cannot be outperformed: their humanity, which features emotional, creative and relational dimensions as well as the potential to “structure ourselves socially in a way that stimulates purely human knowledge.”

It was not long ago that we were talking about the changes brought about by Industry 4.0, and now we are already in the 5.0 era, which will cause a shake-up similar to that caused by steam engines in the 18th century. These will be times marked by the total interconnection fostered by the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics: increasingly, life will be concentrated in cities (therefore, as the aforementioned New European Bauhaus points out, social design for urban environments seems a priority) and production processes will accelerate due to the interaction of people and cobots, which will personalize invoicing processes (unlike in the era of serial production).

This future in the making, however, will not have a solid foundation if, on the one hand, we do not take into consideration the increasingly obvious limits of the planet and think about sustainability and, additionally, if we do not successfully address coexistence and the dialectic between the local and the global in that interconnected world.

Repetitive and automatic work is often said to be an alienating factor; in this complex scenario, we will be able to entrust this type of task more and more to artificial intelligence, and what Vidal calls “the inescapable need for the human” will expand; that is, our emotional and creative dimension, our ability to establish links, form networks, lead groups and design strategies, all of which are more necessary than ever in these uncertain times. It is therefore time to nurture and strengthen this irreplaceable factor properly, starting from self-knowledge and integrating both the global and digital dimensions into the heart of our curricula.