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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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Therefore, it could be wise for governments
and public administrations to focus more on
these internal modernisations effects, by using
digitilisation to modernize the health-, care- and
education-system, for instance, and to foster
equal access to these services throughout soci-
ety, for people that live in the cities as well as for
people living in rural areas. This requires, how-
ever, in some of the states to shift away from
strict financial and austerity policies in order to
allow policy makers to become more active
again and invest, for example, in innovation, re-
search and education, in digital as well as social
infrastructure.
How could a vision of welfare 4.0 look like?
May be like this: by using digitalisation we could
enhance the welfare state in such a way that,
on the one hand, it absorbs the risks of growing
flexibilisation and, on the other hand, it offers
us new ways of harnessing the opportunities of
working without space and time constraints,
which could be an important prerequisite for
social progress, too: to enable an independent
and self-determined, active and healthy life for
as many people as possible. This vision needs to
be shaped not only in economy and society, but
also by an active welfare state that invests in the
future – in both, the supply-side (i.e. research,
fast internet connections, etc.) as well as the de-
mand-side (i.e. public procurement, education/
qualification) – in order to foster innovation and
inclusive growth.