Page 205 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Nur Sinem Partigöç

on the idea of Industry 4.0, which had marked the beginning of a new era for
technological innovations in Germany in 2011. The concept of Industry 4.0,
known as the ’Fourth Industrial Revolution’, aims to develop new production
techniques to replace traditional labor factors (muscle strength, arm strength,
physical effort, etc.) with the widespreading of Internet of Things and cloud
system (Taş, 2018). The results of Industry 4.0 applications which differ from
its previous versions in terms of the features such as speed, width, depth,
system effect have given rise to the idea of Society 5.0 which aims to integrate
technological developments into society in order to improve the quality of life
at the social level and build a smart society (Develi, 2017). From a conceptual
point of view, the concept of Society 5.0 can be described as “the philosophy
of social transformation in which the relationship of humans with machines
and robots is ensured in the most efficient way by evaluating the impact of
digital transformation in the world from demographic, economic, ethical and
sociological aspects” (Develi, 2017; Arı, 2021).
As announced by the Japan Business Federation, among the key topics
focused by this new society model which is expressed as ‘Digital Society’,
‘Creative Society’ or ‘Super Society’, there is the promotion for competitiveness
among the smart societies by means of predicting and eliminating the possible
results that may occur due to rapid population growth and unsustainable
resource use, in a way to give priority to the solution for social and economic
problems. The main goals of the Society 5.0 idea which clearly differs from
Industry 4.0 in terms of the topics focused on (urban life quality instead of
production processes, priority given to sustainable social systems instead of
technological innovations, etc.) can be listed as such (Saracel and Aksoy, 2020):
• The realization of individual reform,
• Access to healthy and safe living spaces on an individual scale,
• A new economy and society structure based on the principles of
efficiency, innovation and globalization,
• Increasing the resilience against disasters occurring at the city, country
and world scale,
• Ensuring the participation of all city shareholders in the new processes,
• Development of knowledge-based national strategies,
• The realization of social reform.
When we take a look at the components of Society 5.0 idea, it is observed
that 10 basic components were introduced in the scope of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals. Two components are highlighted among
the ones associated with the concepts of urbanization and risk planning: (a)
Cities and regions (Urban services with high standards, autonomous systems

190 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate