The government's new national digitalization strategy highlights five priority areas to make Norway the world's most digitalized country: i) Increase data sharing and exploit the opportunities in data and data-driven innovation, ii) Utilize the possibilities of artificial intelligence, iii) Accelerate the green and digital transition, iv) Promote an adaptive and innovative business sector, and v) Maintain trust, enhance inclusion, and ensure consideration for children and youth. These themes touch various aspects of the activities at the Faculty of Social Sciences (SV) and will be relevant to most social researchers.
Digitalization has opened doors to a world of data previously unimaginable. Social media, public data sources, satellites, and sensors generate a stream of information. These are updated in real-time and form the basis for exploring how different parts of society influence each other. Geographic information systems and satellites allow for mapping climate changes, air pollution, biodiversity, and infrastructure, and how these interact with politics and society. Advanced analyses detect patterns and predict trends in complex social processes. Linkages to registry data allow us to map the connections with changes in political attitudes and behavior, education, career choices, economic conditions, and health. This is directly relevant to our understanding of resource distribution, inequality, and exclusion, with significant political implications.
At the same time, it's evident that digitalization does not seem equally relevant for all issues and fields of study. Some questions simply cannot be answered using the methods accompanying the digital revolution. Data availability varies across fields, and large parts of our society and the world remain to be digitalized. There are also substantial economic and political interests tied to the production and access to data, and there's a real risk that parts of society and important societal processes that are difficult to digitalize or commercialize may be overlooked. Challenges with such biases in the knowledge base are well known in other areas and are, of course, also relevant for the social sciences. Digitalization does not solve all problems, and in a world of rapid technological development, we must work to preserve the valuable academic diversity within the faculty.
Society has great trust in our research. This gives us, as researchers and as an institution, significant responsibility. Digitalization offers many opportunities, but also raises important issues such as privacy and research ethical dilemmas, for example, when using artificial intelligence and sensitive data. Digitalization increases the potential for collaboration and data sharing. This opens up for interdisciplinary collaboration and a more global approach to research. In an open research system, this is good news and can help spread knowledge. Simultaneously, our ideals of openness, collaboration, and information sharing lead to real security policy issues, which the current geopolitical situation and ongoing conflicts have unfortunately brought to the forefront. The research community has a significant responsibility here.
Society can trust that researchers at the faculty are updated on the strengths and weaknesses of digitalization. However, there is a need to maintain and enhance competencies to ensure the responsible use of new technology and to ensure that we can evaluate the results emerging from the new methods. The faculty is currently completing an investigation and report on our researchers' use of and needs for IT tools and support services in data management and analysis. The university and faculty offer courses, workshops, and resources, and the faculty’s working group for AI in research organizes activities to strengthen researchers’ competencies in AI tools. UiO offers (mandatory) e-learning courses in privacy and recently started a course in research integrity, which provides knowledge of regulations, routines, and ethical norms. The course has been well received, and the faculty encourages everyone to participate and contribute to creating awareness and competence around these important subjects.
Digital tools make it easier to share our research with a broader audience and influence public debate. This increases visibility and contributes to informed decision-making in society. With this comes an increased responsibility for the faculty to equip our researchers with communication skills and to develop procedures to support their dissemination work. The faculty’s communications department offers relevant courses and support to our researchers.
In her digitalization lecture at UiO at the end of October, the Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance Karianne Tung emphasized that digitalization is not just about keeping up with the times but about building society. We stand at the threshold of an era where digitalization and modern technology are transforming the way we research and understand society. This also has implications for the next generation of social scientists, so here research and education must go hand in hand. We encourage researchers and students to engage with technological advances, learn new methods, experiment with tools, and explore digital technology. At the Faculty of Social Sciences, we see this development as a unique opportunity to strengthen our research and impact on society.