Society 5.0 and Public Services: An assessment on Turkey

Abstract

The rapid change in information and communication technologies creates a serious social transformation. In the early 2000s, tools such as computers, internet and mobile phones were almost a luxury, but today they have become an integral part of our lives and brought many new technological developments behind them. Now, many advanced computing tools such as artificial intelligence, robots, internet of things, cloud technologies and big data analysis have started to become widespread in every sector from economy to health, from transportation to education. While technology is advancing rapidly in this direction, increasing natural disasters, terrorist incidents, economic crises and social problems have brought to the agenda that the purpose and way of using technology should be changed based on these problems. In this context, a new technological and social transformation target called Society 5.0 has been put forward by Japan. Aiming to create a sustainable society perspective shaped on the basis of digital technologies, Society 5.0 represents a new human-centered social transformation phase. Society 5.0 aims to create a society where society and technology cooperate on behalf of society, and where technology does not pose a threat to society. It is stated that this transformation, which will affect all sectors, is expected to be effective especially in public services and this is a necessity. In this study, the theoretical framework of the concept of Society 5.0 has been put forward in detail, and it has been tried to reveal how decisive it is in the public sector all over the world, what are the deficiencies and what needs to be corrected. In the light of all these developments, it has been emphasized what the situation and current problems are in the transition to Society 5.0 in Turkey, which can be said to be in the prime stage of industry 4.0, and what kind of road map should be followed in this direction. It was aimed to shed light on the subject by offering some suggestions.