Watch Don Speak about the New Social Contract
Report: Toward a New Social Contract for the Digital Economy
Published under the Blockchain Research Institute in January 2018, this manifesto for change calls for a new social contract, one that redefines the relationship between individuals in society and the institutions they have created to self-govern.
It looks at the four drivers of this change—the Fourth Industrial Revolution, globalization of ideas and the economy, climate change, and demographic shifts due to war, drought, and oppression. It identifies such global disruptions as structural unemployment and inequality; failing education, healthcare, and research and development; human rights violations; and a biosphere in crisis.
It identifies the four core change makers—the private sector, the state, civil society, and individual citizens in mass collaboration—and it outlines the economic, democratic, social, and scientific elements of this new contract.
Frontmatter Podcast:
Towards a New Social Contract for the Digital Age
Latest Articles on the Social Contract
It’s 2030. Looking back, how did we get to a new contract for the digital age.
https://www.coindesk.com/new-social-contract-digital-ageIn a feature for Coindesk, Don speaks from the future to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business and society, and how this incredible disruption to life as we know it will lead to a rewriting of our social contract - and the role that blockchain will...
Why Canada Needs a New Social Contract for the Digital Economy
https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2020/03/04/why-canada-needs-a-new-social-contract-for-the-digital-economy.htmlIn his Toronto Star series, Don writes about the need for the creation of new institutions, models, and agreements in order to fundamentally address deep issues facing Canadian society, such as climate change, reconciliation, populism, and xenophobia. This is the new...
We’re Living in an Era of Digital Feudalism. Here’s How to Take your Data and Identity Back
https://qz.com/1706221/don-tapscott-on-using-blockchain-to-take-back-your-digital-identity/In this Quartz article, Don reviews the feudal nature of our relationship to data companies such as Google and Facebook, and prescribes blockchain as the tool that can return data ownership back to the individual that creates that data. This is self-sovereign...