The Digital Barometer: Voice of the Swiss Population
The population wants to have a say in the digital future, but hardly anyone wants to leave the field to the experts alone, as shown by the DigitalBarometer 2019 of APROPOS - an initiative of the Risk Dialog Foundation.
Giving the population a voice in digitization - that is the goal of the DigitalBarometer. Because involving people is a success factor for digitization.
We live in a digitized world, however, there is also the subjective perception of individual members of the population. Established business models are challenged by digital competition, public authorities try to meet the digital needs of the population, but individuals are also confronted with rapid digital development on a daily basis.
In the case of topics such as "opinion formation" and "automation of work processes," the perception of opportunities and threats is very ambivalent: half of all respondents associate these topics with opportunities and threats in equal measure. In other areas, such as "e-voting," clear camps of opinion have formed. Here, 41% see more opportunities than threats and 32% more threats than opportunities. A clearly polarizing topic. Thanks to the DigitalBarometer, representative data is now available for all eight topics surveyed.
Hazard Perceptions
The different perceptions of opportunities and threats are also expressed in the forms of participation and co-determination that are demanded. For example, people who associate the topic of "e-voting" with more opportunities are more likely to want to participate in pilot projects. When it comes to the topic of "automation of work processes," exciting age differences can be seen. While younger (18-34 year-olds) and older people (50-64 year-olds) are more willing to adapt their own behavior in order to keep pace with the digitization of the world of work, e.g. by means of further training, the middle age group (35-49 year-olds) is less willing.
"The annual repetition of the Digital Barometer shows how the perception of opportunities and threats is changing as the digital transformation progresses. It gives politics, research, business and civil society the opportunity to take up the current topics. For APROPOS_, it shows focal points for the next projects." (Anna-Lena Köng, Project Manager DigitalBarometer at the Risk Dialogue Foundation)
| What is the DigitalBarometer? The annual DigitalBarometer as part of the APROPOS_ initiative of the Risk Dialog Foundation - supported by Mobiliar Genossenschaft - provides differentiated answers to the pressing questions: What is the Swiss population's perception of opportunities and threats? Where would they like to have a say, help shape and be involved? In this way, politics, research, business and civil society can specifically shape the individual applications of digitization in such a way that existing opportunities are exploited and perceived dangers are addressed.
The booklet on the DigitalBarometer 2019 has been available since November 27, 2019, including additional information at: www.apropos.swiss/de/digitalbarometer |
The future debate must show what the possibilities are for the individual, where framework conditions are needed, and how the potential opportunities and dangers can be dealt with in concrete terms. It is important to involve both analog and digital thinkers and doers. We can build on our long experience with direct democratic participation to shape digital Switzerland together - with and for the people.
