Introduction: Social security and the digital economy – Managing transformation

This special issue of the International Social Security Review considers the multidisciplinary topic of social security and the digital economy. The selected articles that comprise this issue offer a number of varying perspectives on the changing and increasingly complex environment in which social security institutions operate and critically assess not only how social security institutions are likely to be impacted but also how they may respond to the challenges foreseen. Social security institutions do not have control over external factors that can negatively impact the financing and coverage of social security programmes. Nonetheless, with the shift to the digital economy, the task at hand is to manage an unprecedented process of change. Though ensuring service continuity is the primary concern, also required are improvements in service delivery for all stakeholders and the development of responses to meet new operational challenges and emerging coverage risks. Particularly in more developed economies, the socio‐economic challenges that accompany the labour market changes associated with the transition to the digital economy are often characterized as presenting a risk of growing precarity. Regardless, the global policy goal remains one of ensuring sustainable and adequate social security protection for all.