Public policy

Policy is conceptualized as a declaration and implementation of intent (Cloete & Coning, 2005:6). Therefore, policy is not made in the electoral arena or in the gladiatorial confrontation of Parliament, but in the netherworld of committees, civil servant, professions and interest group (Marsh & Rhodes, 1992:1). Thus, it is a concept that embodies several different dimensions and on the other hand, it seeks to achieve desired goal that is considered to be in the best interest of all members of society. Example: include clean air, clean water, good health, high employment, an innovative economy, active trade, high educational attainment, decent and affordable housing, minimal level of poverty, improved literacy, low crime and a socially cohesive society (Torjman, 2005:5). 

 

Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 focuses on the establishment of intelligent products and production process. Therefore, because the future manufacturing factories have to cope with the need of rapid product development, flexible production as well as complex environment. Thus within the factory of the future also considered as a smart factory, Cyber Physical System ( are integrations of computation, networking and physical process, it embedded computers and  networking monitor and control the physical processes with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa) will enable the communication between humans, machines and products alike. In addition, as these machines are able to acquisition and process data they can self-control certain tasks and interact with human via interfaces (Brettel et al, 2004:1).  

Individualized production

The industrial production of high-tech products has to be advantage between the satisfaction of heterogeneous customer needs through individualization and the realization of scale effect along the value chain. In addition, the dilemma between the concept economies of scale and scope can be addressed by the concept of Mass Customization. MC in the context of manufacturing is a production strategy that focuses on the production of personalized mass products, mostly through flexible processes, modularized product design and integration between supply chain members along the value chain (Lee et al, 2014:1). 

Poverty as societal divide

 According to Chamber (2006:2), poverty has been related to income, which remains at the core of the concept today. However, income is itself no less problematic a concept than poverty is too has to be carefully and precisely elaborated. Thus, other resources such as assets, income in kind and subsidies to public services and employment should be imputed to arrive at a comprehensive but accurate measure of income.  Poverty is a process, its essential root causes are surrounded in inequality, insecurity, vulnerability, discrimination and exclusion (Anon., 2012:6).

The societal context of services for families in poverty

Services often are considered in a vacuum as if they were a discrete and isolated strategy for supporting people and solving social problems. In reality, in all their aspects from funding patterns to program objectives to helping relationships services are strongly shaped by and are reflective of the ideal, tensions, contradiction, ambiguities and myths of the society in which they are embedded. In addition, if a society chooses to isolate particular groups of citizens through residential segregation by race, that choice is going to affect not only those people and those providing services to them but also society itself (Halpern, 2017:  159).  

Will industry 4.0 enlarge or reduce poverty as societal divide? Moreover, what will the policy implications be?

The industry 4.0 is the current trend of automation and exchange in manufacturing technology and will enlarge poverty. Thus, rethinking machinery and technology can increase poverty simply because machines have taken over the world. Employment will decreased because of machines and as a result, poverty will continue to increase. In additions, rapid technology will not only affect the employment rate but as well as the skills of people will be limited. However, policy implementation is the solution to poverty simply because it seeks to achieve desired goal that is considered to be in the best interest of all members of society. Policy implementations includes the goal on how to reduce poverty. Moreover, unemployment is major cause of poverty because unemployed have little income, relying on state benefits. Unemployment can be reduced through both supply side and demand side policies.

Policies to reduce poverty in developing economies:

1. Education- greater spending on education and training can enable higher skilled workforce.
2. Aid- aid from developed countries can be used to invest in better health care and education.
3. Diversification of economy away from agriculture to manufacturing. This enables greater economic development, but may be difficult to do without the right skills and infrastructure.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of references

Anon. 2012. What is poverty. https://www.thl.fi/documents/189940/263914/WHAT+POVERTY+IS.pdf/41b2ce48-7309-4d9d-9327-21fb9c571517  Date of access: 14 April 2017.

Brettel, M., Friederichsen, N., keller, M., & Rosenberg, m. 2014. How virtualization decentralization and network building change the manufacturing landscape. International journal of mechanical, 1 (8):37-43.

Chamber, R. 2006. Poverty in focus. United Nation: Roberto Astorino and Lucas Moll.

Fanie, C. 2005. Improving public policy. 3th ed. Pretoria: Van Schaik.  

Halpern, R. 2017. The societal context of home visiting and related services for families in poverty. The future of children, 3 (3):158-171.

Lee, J., Kao, H., & Yang, S. 2014. Service innovation and smart analytics for industry 4.0 and big data environment. Industrial production, (16): 3-8.

Marsh,D., & Rhodes, R.A.W. 1992. Policy networks in British government. British: Clarendon Press.

Torjman, S. 2005. What is poverty. United Nation: The Caledon Institute of Social Policy.