States around the world are responding in diverse ways to the disruptive power of digital technologies. Their role is crucial in determining whether technological development in government, society and the economy will produce more or less stable and equitable futures.
States around the world are responding in diverse ways to the disruptive power of digital technologies
As users, developers and regulators of digital technologies, they have a crucial role to play in determining whether the digitisation of government, society and the economy will produce more or less stable and equitable futures. The Digital State programme, led by Dr Tanya Filer, sets out both to lead policy research and provide a forum for broad-ranging discussion with academics and policymakers on the opportunities and challenges that digital technologies pose to policymaking, governance and democracy. It will meet this aim through an expanding portfolio of projects. These currently include:
Governing Govtech
Govtech refers broadly to digital and new technologies designed for the public sector. The technologies that it signals thus hold the potential to affect the broadest scope of public life. The Governing Govtech project seeks to explore and propose good governance mechanisms for the Govtech sector: ones that prioritise both democratic values and useful innovation that meets public needs. The project will be international and comparative in focus, including Chile, the UK and Israel, and will draw on pertinent models from other sectors. It will look beyond regulation alone, to consideration questions of culture, ethics, markets and public value.
Tech States
Tech States is the Institute’s video and podcast interview series with leading digital policymakers and public policy professionals. It sets out to explore the complex, exciting and at times concerning relationship between government, politics, and digital and emerging technologies.
Building Digital Knowledge in Government
Governments around the world suffer from a deficit of knowledge among senior leadership surrounding digital technologies and the possibilities that they hold for public service provision, policy making and regulation. How do we ensure that senior and emerging leaders understand how digital technologies can both impact and transform government, and on the basis of that knowledge make informed decisions on digital adoption? The Bennett Institute for Public Policy will explore these questions in close collaboration with members of the policy community.
S T LEE Policy Lecture by Jacqueline Poh, Deputy Secretary, Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore
The 2019 S T Lee Public Policy lecture, organised by the Centre for Science and Policy, was delivered by Jacqueline Poh, Deputy Secretary, Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. In ‘Prospero’s Practicum’ Poh provides an authoritative account of the Singaporean experience of technological development and management, and the key role of policy in defining how the technologies of the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ interact with and impact citizens’ lives.
- Watch the lecture and read the foreword by Dr Tanya Filer.
- S T Lee Public Policy Lecture, 2019: Prospero’s Practicum: Conjuring the 4th Industrial Revolution on an Even Smaller Island. By Jacqueline Poh.
