Digitization and globalization: Navigating the impact on social capital, natural resources, and environmental sustainability

Abstract

The impact of digitization in the context of globalization on the formation and preservation of social capital, natural resources, and the environment has been considered. In examining state strategies towards digitization and its influence on social capital, principles such as specificity, integrity, historicism, and rationality were employed, along with methods of comparison and constructive criticism, as well as categories of essence, necessity, and measure. Historical, anthropological, ontological, political, axiological, and dialectical methods played a significant role in reflecting the characteristics of the information age, defining strategies, and priorities for the development of states and social capital. Countries that vigorously integrate digitization into human existence tend to develop faster, reap economic benefits, thereby contributing to the preservation of social capital. Additionally, the processes of digitization become essential for creating a digital space for the formation of digital social capital and the digital individual, each possessing unique characteristics. The digitization of social capital processes entails the introduction of digital technologies into the ontological environment of individuals, where they become part of human reality. Both positive and negative aspects of digitization have been identified, with the impact of digitization on social capital formation being complex and multifaceted, depending on the state’s development strategy in this direction. Digital technologies facilitate communication, increase access to information and resources, promoting the development of social connections and cooperation, ultimately enabling quick responses to environmental challenges for the preservation of the environment. Digitization is one of the characteristics of a society of sustainable development. Within the concept of this society, it allows accumulating social capital, developing the economy, taking into account environmental requirements. From a practical point of view, digitalization is a condition for structural changes in organizations, as a result of which the processes of internal and external communication and management change. The development of a digitalized society, in which the accumulation of social capital takes place, has a positive effect on the implementation of the principles of sustainable development: the combination of nature conservation and social development; satisfaction of basic human needs; achieving equality and social justice; ensuring social self-determination and cultural diversity; maintaining the integrity of ecosystems.