Social Risks of Digital Economy

• Main Authors: Natalia A. Kazachek, Elena Yu. Zakharova
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Transbaikal State University 2020-07-01
• Series: Гуманитарный вектор
• Subjects: social risks; digital economy; living standard; quality of life; digitization
• Online Access: http://zabvektor.com/wp-content/uploads/120720010734-Kazachek,%20Zaharova.pdf

The second decade of the 21st century has been an active phase in building of the information society. Digitization “race” in different states offers a potential to improve the welfare of the country and to preserve the sovereignty. The research aims at studying the social risks of digital economy. The study is based on a sociological approach, which allows us to analyze social consequences of modern society transformation and to determine the directions in social policy for minimizing the risks. We also use a structural and functional approach to analyze social reality, which determines the very premise of studying different sociocultural phenomena and processes. In our research, we applied theoretical (abstraction, analysis and synthesis, idealization, induction and deduction, mental simulation) and empirical (observation, comparison, questionnaire survey) methods. The result of this research is identification of the social risks of digital economy and description of possible variants of the society development in the context of digitization. The authors paid special attention to the problem of information and digital divide. This has led to new thinking in the issues of quality of life under the conditions of digitization. A sociological study concluded that, regardless of the population’s standard of living, digital technologies do not always improve the quality of life. With the material capacity to use digital technologies, not everyone uses them considering it unnecessary, which is often due to the lack of digital readiness of citizens. The results obtained can be used in shaping the strategy of increasing the population’s digital readiness as a necessary living condition in the information society.