Society 4.0 applied in Africa: Advancing the social impact of technology

Abstract

Global technological advancement as aligned to the fourth industrial revolution supports various first world development needs. Within the African context, and specifically in developing countries like South Africa (SA), the benefit from technology innovation can significantly impact on socio-economic issues like unemployment and skills development. Technological development is identified as a crucial driver for new growth and a means to develop and outperform global competitors. Human capital, specifically young people, supports inclusive and sustainable economic growth. South Africa as per current classification, remains a twofold economy with among the greatest inequality rates in the world, continuing both disparity and segregation. Employment remains at more than one in three youth unemployed. A group of academics and commercial partners working across disciplines collaborate to create opportunities for local young people to participate in research and data gathering at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The need for the enablement of technology especially among the youth of the African society has initiated a research question, which determines whether technological instruments can be developed and deployed in Africa to facilitate youth. A transformative but collaborative (researcher and community team), approach is the focus with youth employment as a key objective. Collaboration with local communities to gather household and sector specific data, UJ mobilizes cross-disciplinary research networks to drive social innovation. Joining strategies and technologies to develop appropriate, smart digital tools to support technological enablement for survey data collection in the informal sector in South Africa. The team develop a research methodology and digital tools, which enables geographic information systems (GIS) survey data collection over large geographical areas, at scale, which relies on rigorous data quality controls. Providing various opportunities to local young people in the digital, gig-economy through data collection and digital networking. The major perspective of this paper is to study the aspect of technology and the way it empowers young people on the African continent. The paper presents the design, evolution and results of the digital platform as developed for two major South African Projects.