A digital culture? Postindustrialism, values, and digital fitness [Paper presentation]

Abstract

Whereas Inglehart and Baker (2000) try to show the relationship between economic development and systematic changes in basic values, this paper attempts to test the existence of a relationship between a certain set of values and “digital economic fitness” in a changed global economic environment now dominated by digital technology. Digitalization has impacted political agency, economic and social participation, as well as cultural parameters, and as a consequence individual behavior. Social norms and values, the argument goes, have altered the establishment and impact of social networks. Whether those values seem to translate into national “digital cultures,” or put differently whether certain values seem to be clustered more strongly within some countries than within others or whether they tend to balance each other out. Before we can look at the aggregate nation-level, we must establish a clear relationship between individual attitudes and a culture leading to a society better equipped for the “Digital Economy” and do so by investigating data from the latest waves of the World Value Survey conducted from 1981-2014. After having established this “micro-macro-level link,” we continue to show that there are indeed cross-national differences that leave some countries more successful in the new economic environment than others.

Joachim K. Rennstich

Professor International Social Work and Research Methods

My research interests include the long-term development of digital capitalism, digital literacy and innovative teaching-methodologies.