Digitalization of Culture. Review of the book “Eine kurze Geschichte der Digitalisierung” by M. Burckhardt

Abstract

The article reviews the book of the German culturologist M. Burkhardt “Eine kurze Geschichte der Digitalisierung”. Burckhardt considers digitalization not only as a cumulative process of technological change, but also as a value shift associated with the proliferation of digitalization into all spheres of life. Based on rich historical material, the book describes the emergence, design and implementation of various technologies that made digitalization possible. Burckhardt’s key hypothesis is that the transition to the digital age must be viewed in the context of the creation of a new structure of social relations and cultural patterns generated by digitalization. Digitalization should be described as a process that is taking place on acultural level as actively as in the economic or technological spheres. Burkhardt pays special attention to the problem of self-governance of the scientific community and the opportunities that digitalization has provided for it in the last half century. The third important theme in the book is the value of work in the digital age and the revaluation of the work process in connection with the increasing proliferation of digital technologies.