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Transformations of the Socio-Political-Economic Systems at the Confluence with New Technologies: Revisiting the “Liberalism versus Statism” Dilemma in the Context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0

Transformations of the Socio-Political-Economic Systems at the Confluence with New Technologies: Revisiting the “Liberalism versus Statism” Dilemma in the Context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 Call for articles by “Amfiteatru Economic” editorial board

Industrial Revolutions (IR) represent periods of scientific and technological transformation in which economic sectors, as well as social structures, in their broadest understanding, are subjected to “stress tests”, under the combined action of the forces of progress/modernization and conservation/tradition. These are processes that, for example, economists can examine in terms of delivering economic growth/development/sustainability or that political scientists can study, in turn, as fermenting in democratic/dictatorial/autocratic regimes. Holding two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retaining the ability to function is an inescapable challenge since putting social knowledge (for instance, scientific or technological) to good use is associated with the freedom of circulation of ideas, though also with their centralization, regulation and planning.

Socio-political-economic systems are essentially institutional arrangements – that is, “sets of societal rules” – that members of a human community can opt into (either in a conscious manner or not). Those who want to understand what world they live in (or would like to live in; or, on the contrary, to avoid) need to ask themselves basic questions such as: what economic/political systems are feasible?; which is preferable and why?; what kind of system does this or that country have? These systems, through their fundamental data, may favour, among other things, the unfolding of technological (r)evolutions, whilst the resulting technologies, once becoming dominant, manage to imprint upon these societal systems certain predispositions (for example, elitist or gregarious, meritocratic or opportunistic, entrepreneurial or social-security assisted etc.).

IR research is far from just a topic for historians of economic or political phenomena, but a program that puts our very future at stake. The last revolutionary episode – 4.0, of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Co. – has already made many, in the extreme versions of their existential dilemmas, question not only what role is left for them, but whether there is any place left for them. And RIs are not phenomena that can be fitted into a predefined schema: they do not follow a univocal logic from science to technology, but a co-evolutionary one; then, although all IRs have had a general-purpose technique (steam 1.0, electricity, mass-production and interchangeability 2.0, electronics/microprocessors 3.0, and AI 4.0), there has been as much rupture as technological continuity; and transformations remain both processable via markets and politically manipulable.

The Amfiteatru Economic journal Issue no. 68/2025 proposes a reflection exercise, deliberate multi-/inter-/cross-disciplinary, dedicated to the evaluation and (d)enunciation, retrospectively, but, above all, prospectively, of profound causalities, passing correlations and pure and simple coincidences in what concerns the metabolism of technological pretensions in socio-political-economic macro-systems. They will analyse and, as far as possible, anticipate mega-trends, catalysts and inhibitors, as well as game-changers in what we can call broadly (but not detachedly, for it involves each of us, and not only from the position of researchers) the “world and life” of the future. Without limiting to the research routes which are listed below, the authors are invited to add fresh insights to the debates related to the techno-transformations we are expected to experience in terms of:

- The economy of private space vs. the economy of public space, revisited in the increasingly technological spectre of social existence

- Taxation seen as a lever to flatten the asymmetries between hyper-regenerative technological capital and work/labour threatened by redundancy

- Regulations, competitive or internationally coordinated, aimed at accelerating or slowing down sectoral developments, in the name of social well-being

- The welfare state, from a redistributor of resources towards passive beneficiaries to an activator of opportunities for “technologically disadvantaged categories”

- The techno-economic optimization of political life, between the rethinking of electoral mechanisms and the redesign of the political-administrative exercises

- Re-evaluating the moral, ethical, legal dimension of new technologies with the help of the intellectual toolkit of economic utilitarianism (or, why not, even going against it)

 

More here: https://amfiteatrueconomic.ro/TematicaRevistei_EN.aspx

 
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