Economic Restructuring through the Ages: What drives the change?
Economics has never really been a topic that has filled me with excitement and wonder. I have always viewed it as a “tick box” subject when it comes to studies. Well, that was until recently. Over the recent past I have become increasingly aware of the subtleties of economics and more over the various manifestations there of. To be more precise, I have become quite fascinated by the evolution of economics or rather economic models over the past decade or so.
Basically I am talking about economic restructuring; the phenomenon of Western urban areas shifting from being manufacturing-centric to a more service-centric economic base.
This transformation has affected demographics including income distribution, employment, and social hierarchy; institutional arrangements including the growth of the corporate giants, homogeneous producer services, a robust more informal economy, nonstandard work; as well as geographic spacing including the rise of world cities, spatial mismatch, and metropolitan growth differentials.
The world economy is now in a state of near constant flux as countries; companies and people are making massive strides across the economic playing field essentially disrupting the status quo.
This has given rise to various new economic models. Here are a few of them:
The knowledge economy however is also possible without technology. Technology just acts as a huge catalyst.
According to Mesenbourg (Assistant Director for Economic Programs U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001); there are three main components of the ‘Digital Economy’ concept :
- supporting infrastructure (hardware, software, telecoms, networks, etc.),
- e-business (how business is conducted, any process that an organization conducts over computer-mediated networks),
- e-commerce (transfer of goods, for example when a book is sold online).
In 2007, virtually no mobile apps existed. As of 2011, more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded.
Collaborative consumption as a phenomenon is a class of economic arrangements in which participants share access to products or services, rather than having individual ownership.
This collaborative consumption model is used in many online and offline business that I can guarantee you have already interacted with. Organisations such as eBay as well as emerging sectors such as social lending, peer-to-peer accommodation (Airbnb), peer-to-peer task assignments or travel advising, car sharing (Rent My Ride) or commute-bus sharing.
The fact of the matter is that technology is the enabler of a lot of these various economies.
What that means is that we have not seen the last thrust of innovation in terms of these economies; in fact, we are just scratching the surface. When we look at futurist trends that start thinking about the worker of the future; the business of the future and let’s not forget the currency of the future we begin to realise that the “innovate or die” is not just sensationalism – it’s real!