Library & Information Science

Distinguished professor of technology and economics Carlota Perez talks to Computer Weekly about why the UK government needs to help boost the information economy and why the sector is key to our next golden age of growth.

Perez is an expert in technological revolutions, working as a visiting scholar, researcher and honorary professor at three UK universities, as well as holding the post of professor of technology and socio-economic development at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia.

Government is not only crucial to facilitating ICT-led growth, but is now at a pivotal point in implementing the right policy to do so, she says.

“The first thing that we all have to understand, including the government, is that the information economy is not just about computers and mobile phones, but about an enormous new potential for innovation and wealth creation, using ICT,” says Perez.

“Finding a new growth path for the country, capable of providing a good life for all, is dependent upon understanding that potential and on how well we manage to take advantage of it,” she says.

Perez believes we are living through the fifth technological revolution to occur since the Industrial Revolution, one that is fundamentally reshaping our lives.

“It’s a different paradigm that affects everything for four or six decades [after the revolution first occurs]," she says. "But it is not a smooth process. Each time there are two different periods with a bubble and recession between them,” she says.

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