Digitalisation tested in a crisis
Schools, courts and families relied increasingly on digital communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a blog article on DeFacto, journalist Simon Koechlin points out that the push towards digitalisation remained limited.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the slogan in spring 2020 was: “Keep your distance”. Inevitably, there was a real boom in the use of digital communication tools. Employers sent their staff to work from home. Video conferences replaced meetings and lessons. Young people taught their grandparents how to use an app to leave voice messages or make a video call. However, whilst the pandemic permanently accelerated digitalisation in some areas, the boost remained limited in others.
As research projects carried out under NRP 80 show, there is clear evidence of a surge in digitalisation in schools, but not in Swiss courts. When court staff were required to work from home, many were without laptops, external monitors or VPN access. By 2025, video hearings had still not become widespread.
For his article “Digitalisation tested in a crisis”, science journalist Simon Koechlin interviewed researchers from the projects “Digitising educational practice”, “Digital justice in family law” and “Intergenerational cohesion”. The article has been published on DeFacto as part of the NRP 80 blog series.