Social risks of educational space digitalization in regional universities: identification and institutionalization problems

Abstract

   Insufficient conceptualization regarding the analysis of social risks of the educational space digitalization in universities and the ambiguity of their initial prerequisites necessitate the study of this problem. The article analyzes the prerequisites for social risks of the educational space digitalization in regional universities, based on the provisions on their normativity for modern social reality, transformation into a permanent factor of the functioning of complex sociobiotechnical systems, ambivalence of risk, the need for risk genesis process regulation. The well-established statement “risk = uncertainty” is considered, and the author′s own vision of the social risks of the educational space digitalization in regional universities is formulated. It is emphasized that the process of digitalization leads to mass reproduction of uncertainties and, as a consequence, social risks at all levels of social self-organization, including universities, which are open to the external environment. The author describes the specific uncertainties that digitalization creates at the level of the education system and individual universities. The author’s definition of the social risks of the educational space digitalization in a regional university is given as the awareness of its actors of the probability of events that determine the deviation from their goals due to the introduction of digital technologies and encouraging subjects to take actions that do not guarantee the achievement of the planned result. The necessity of risk genesis management as a regulatory influence combining administrative regulation and self-regulation of subjects and counterparties of the educational space of universities in order to identify and use positive opportunities of social risks of digitalization and exclude negative consequences is substantiated. The idea of “risk making” is proposed as an activity to identify and use the constructive potential of social risks of the educational space digitalization and minimize their negative consequences.