Cuarta revolución industrial, automatización y digitalizaciónuna visión desde la periferia de la Unión Europea en tiempos de pandemia

Abstract

The paper tries to analyse how the process of technological innovation known as digitization affects the capitalist production mode and its relations of production, particularly in Spain and Latin America, answering four questions. It begins by studying the gradual appearance or development, since the last quarter of the last century, of a set of information and communication technologies, which allow the hybridization between the physical and the digital world, erasing the borders between both worlds, which has led to talk of Industry 4.0 asking if we are facing “the fourth industrial revolution”. After this supposed revolution, there would be a digital revolution. Moreover, this despite the fact that manufacturing continues to lose weight in the economy as a whole, in employment and participation in Gross Value Added. The degree of digitization achieved is analysed below. The third section reviews the effects of digitalization and automation on employment and working conditions, in particular polarization, changes in employment shares across occupations, and jobs at risk, with some emphasis in the Spanish case. In the last section, the paper intends to answer the question whether there is a progressive industrial policy feasible to cope with these changes.