ABSTRACT
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is capable of multiple meanings, and these are reviewed here. These meanings are reflected in different discourses that currently construct 4IR. One describes it as a significant source of social disruption as a result of new technologies with the capacity to displace workers yet deliver significant efficiencies. In this scenario, such processes demand new skills for an ever-diminishing workforce. A second discourse views the proposed changes as part of a socio-technical imaginary preparing the way for yet more neo-liberal policies designed to support elites rather than all citizens. Following analyses of these two discourses implications are drawn for the values that can aid in responding to 4IR’s technologies, their human/technology fusion and their impact in an ever changing social and political environments.
