We are living in a time of big changes. We face changes driven by powerful forces like world population growth; rising prices for food, fuel, and raw materials; depletion of natural resources; and increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And at the very same time, we are also surrounded by the rapid spread of new technologies such as social media, mobile consumer devices like smartphones and tablet computers, and cloud computing and software apps. Clearly, the path forward involves finding ways to use the potentials of the latter to address the challenges of the former.

The magnitude of the challenges we face now is unlike anything we have experienced since the early years of the last century. At that time a hundred years ago, work and society were transformed by the spread of industrial technology and the resulting mass migration of people from farms and small towns to factories and big cities.

The first decades of the last century saw a transition from the practices of an earlier age—the Victorian Age—to the practices of a new age—the Industrial Age. In the countries where industrial activity was concentrated, there was conflict between those who paid wages and those who earned wages, and yet ultimately, that conflict was channeled in socially constructive ways that resulted in the growth of a large middle class sustained by lifetime employment in companies offering jobs with career paths, benefits, and pensions. This economic model of employment bec