Literacy: Promoting Sustainability in a Digital Society

Abstract

We increasingly live simultaneously immersed in physical interactions and in a world where the digital dimension is present at various levels, such as the social, economic and political ones. In this context, the relationship between the digital world and Sustainability is pivotal. This aim of this paper is to discuss, in a reasoned manner, the importance of literacy in the promotion of sustainability in a digital society. For this purpose, the results of a literature review will be mobilized, as well as our 20 years of experience in teaching and research in the fields of sociology, education and organizations, without forgetting the publications that we have on similar topics, which will be, whenever heuristically relevant, mobilized to substantiate and justify the arguments presented herein. The conclusions show that, in a reality where the digital involves many of the life dimensions—for example, in the form of Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0—the role of literacy and, in particular, digital literacy, are critical in the development of sustainability literacy. For this to be possible, significant training work must be carried out. Furthermore, it is not possible to assume that the access, the skills in its use and the benefits of this wonderful digital world will automatically be grasped and felt by all citizens, in an ideology that must be fought. Only in this way will it be possible to foster sustainability, which must necessarily be inclusive.

Digitainability—Digital Competences Post-COVID-19 for a Sustainable Society

“…This learning of competences for a sustainable digital society-digitainability-implies new pedagogical dynamics and methodologies, both in the face-to-face context of the learning and teaching process and in the distance learning modality [19,27,42,[147][148][149], in its variants of blended learning, flipped classroom, inquiry-participatory and smart teaching [6,24,148,[150][151][152][153][154][155]. These variants have, in their differences, the common element of fostering the dynamics of learning through (controlled) learner autonomy, with greater personalization in fostering students' self-learning [ These pedagogical dynamics, which confront an overly transmissive school culture, happen and will happen increasingly through the digital and must be, simultaneously, framed by the digital and the framers of that same digital [20,25,44,48,49,[103][104][105][106][107]150,[162][163][164].…”

“…There is a close interconnection between digitally included and educated digital citizens, social integration, information sharing and discussion and Sustainable Development Goals [6,69,70,85,134]. Lozano-Díaz and Fernández-Prados [186] advocate, in this respect, that "Educating today's digital citizens on sustainability means training them for justice and social activism, commitment and political engagement" (p. 1), for integral citizenship [181].…”

“…We live in a world increasingly immersed in the digital, with the Internet, global communications and digital networks [1][2][3], in what may be called a digital society [4][5][6][7]. The digital, in the form of technologies, is already present in multiple dimensions of our daily life, with specificities that shape social relationships [7][8][9][10].…”

“…In this context, the ability to exhibit digital competences or digital literacy is critical, as competences for conscious and intentional participation, not only in consumption but also in digital production in the most diverse areas of life [6,73,74], creating digital citizens [55,59,63]. A clear example is the existence of the "infodemic" in relation to the excess of (mis)information on COVID-19 itself [41,[75][76][77].…”

“…While being critical, it is not enough to invest in technological structures to succeed in addressing this digital challenge of the learning and development of these (specific and transversal) competences [88]. Digital literacy is paramount in this process [6,85]. In this process, and perhaps with increasing relevance, the domain-at least in the logic of the cybersecurity users-is yet another critical digital competence.…”