The World Ahead 2022: five stories to watch out for

[Music] in 2021 some dared to imagine a post-covered world while others had those dreams shattered in 2022 tide of instability and uncertainty people will seek out firm assurances so what's really on the horizon from exploring the universe and the metaverse to seismic power shifts and new fashion trends here are five stories that will shape the world ahead in 2022 china will test america's global leadership around november the communist party will hold its 20th congress where it will surprise no one when president xi jinping seeks another term as china's top leader not since mao zu dong has a ruler amassed so much power but while mao's china was closed off from the world xi's ambitions are far-reaching part of that idea of this kind of uniquely impressive and powerful chinese leader is that he is going to be a rival center of gravity to an america that the communist party at least is sure is on its way out in november on the other side of the pacific americans will hold their midterm elections polls suggest president biden's democrats could lose their slim majority in both the house and senate leaving a dysfunctional divided government and a poor advert for democracy if you were a member of the communist party in china and you look at images from the west particularly america and you see chaos you see protests you see violence you see racial divisions democracy in the american sense is a wicked lie that it pretends to be a system that delivers for ordinary people but it can't even achieve the most basic achievement of keeping people safe and alive in a pandemic for the chinese communist party the western system led by america is in terminal decline the only country in the world powerful enough to stop china's rights and 2022 is going to be a study in contrasts as seen from beijing other countries are speeding up and america's falling behind the world has taken notice by the way including our adversaries while americans fight to shore up their democracy president xi will use the year to try and showcase how china's autocracy is more effective and so more legitimate whitewashing the fact that far away from the glittering skyscrapers much of china is poor polluted and unequal the chinese communist party would like to be loved it will settle for being respected they want the world to look at china's rise china's handing of coved they hope successful hosting of the winter olympics in february 2022 the strength of china's economy and to think you know what all of our qualms about chinese human rights china's autocratic iron fisted system of government maybe those don't matter as much as china's success by the end of the year after president xi steps onto the stage in the great hall of the people to cement his power china will look more ready than ever for a post-american age the core message of china under xi jinping in 2022 it's a brutal one that china's version is winning and that the west is losing [Applause] the dream of flexible remote working will collide with reality in 2022 as many of us head back to the office but not five days a week and not nine to five hybrid working will become the new normal a hybrid model is really some sort of mix it tends to be a mix of working in the office and working from home working parents and people with long expensive commutes are among those who stand to benefit from flexible working if done well a hybrid office could improve inequality the gender pay gap all sorts of things but 2022 will see debate over what that hybrid model should be a survey in america showed that the average employee would like to work from home for around half the week but their bosses want them to spend close to four days in the office with just one day working from home both employers as well as employees will need to find a sort of middleweight between the benefits that became really clear during the pandemic of remote works but also the benefits of the offers that were missed brainstorming something that's often mentioned the creative process was often missed networking hybrid models could offer the best of both worlds but only if the pitfalls can be avoided one of the greatest risks from the hybrid model is probably that it means different things to different people surveys show that 85 percent of women currently working remotely want flexibility compared to 79 of men and people of color want more time working from home than white people a survey by future forum showed that only three percent of black knowledge workers in america want to return to the office full time compared to 21 of their white counterparts fitting into a predominantly white office in dealing with subtle bias and racism are among the factors that are likely to make remote working more appealing it's not a problem that different groups have different preferences or that some might want to come to the office more than others but it is a problem if being in the office more gets rewarded [Music] presenteeism bias is a well-known phenomenon that as a manager you're not doing this on purpose but you tend to think that the people who you see regularly on the office floor automatically as more dedicated and more productive than those who you don't see the problem is if women and minorities prefer to work from home bosses will see mostly white men in the office [Music] some people talk of the the office becoming a man cave so the place where younger men all go and women will be seen much less if you take it to its extreme you could imagine the office becoming yeah a little bit more like it was in the in the 50s right and which is not exactly progress 2022 is the year the dust settles and new ways of working are figured out but if not thought through there's a risk that hybrid models will undo hard-won gains in equality and diversity [Music] [Music] the metaverse is the next frontier in 2022 you'll be hearing a lot more about the metaverse so what is it and what will it be used for from microsoft's point of view what is a metaverse it's an internet that you can actually interact with like we do in the physical world metaverse is an umbrella term that refers to online virtual worlds and the idea of linking them together and just as the internet was able to do new things because we connected all of the computers and the networks together the idea is that if you link together these virtual worlds that opens up all sorts of exciting new possibilities worlds where people hang out are nothing new in 2003 the online game second life allowed people to enter a virtual space as avatars and interact with each other [Music] but today's virtual worlds are much more realistic the online game fortnite blurs the line between social space and video game whether you put on a vr headset to go into these worlds or you just use a normal screen like on a smartphone or a pc is up to you i know it looks a bit silly wearing one of these things that's kind of not the point it doesn't really you look a bit stupid wearing a scuba mask but you know you do it because it allows you to do a fun thing tens of millions of people already play games and socialize in 3d worlds [Music] in 2021 over a million fans watched ariana grande's concerts inside the video game fortnite but the metaverse is not just for gamers during the covert 19 pandemic we've all got used to interacting online virtual meetings are here to stay and the metaverse can make them more lifelike i think there's definitely an appetite out there for more sophisticated forms of online collaboration than just being in a grid of boxes and a video call and one of the ways that you could do that would be to be in one of these virtual environments with your co-workers or your friends or whatever both microsoft and facebook have already built virtual workspaces such as this one from facebook's horizon workrooms where co-workers can come together regardless of physical distance now i love this sort of thing because i'm a gamer and let me tell you it's much more fun than going to meetings and zoom so i think this is where i get to shoot lots of zombies epic games maker of fortnite plans to spend one billion dollars to develop its vision of the metaverse facebook has even renamed itself meta our company is now meta it's already invested over 10 billion dollars to make the metaverse a reality some people say well this is facebook just trying to change the subject because it's got all of these other problems but just because facebook wants to change the subject doesn't mean that there isn't something interesting happening here once a niche concept 2022 will see the metaverse reach a far wider audience that doesn't mean that everyone's going to be using it tomorrow but it does mean i think that it's something that we're going to be hearing more about and that more people are going to be getting involved 2022 will see african fashion enter the global mainstream we are home there'll be a buzz in november when marvel studios releases the sequel to black panzer the oscar-winning movie of 2018 was famed for its african-inspired costumes when the first black panther film came out it got lots of people very interested in african fashion and we saw a massive shift in what people were looking to buy and how people were looking to embrace african fashion but the release of the sequel is just one of the factors that will thrust african designers into the limelight sustainability will remain at the top of the agenda in 2022 and brands like aaks based in ghana are already ahead of the curve i work with artisanal women living in the northern region of ghana to hand make my bags sustainability it's part and parcel of my brand growing up in ghana this is something that we've always done because it's all natural from the raffia that we are sourcing from our farmers to the dyes that we are using to making of our products by hand i think african fashion really fits that niche of being sustainable being ethically made and people being able to trace exactly where the things they're wearing are coming from in addition the black lives matter movement has led to a demand for products from black designers fashion hubs in lagos nairobi and johannesburg are already well established but new designers stand to benefit too for aaks in ghana direct sales grew 700 in 2020 alone i realized yes people wanted to show support to black owned businesses people wanted to purchase products from new companies that they've never even heard of and most importantly black owned businesses designers across the continent are also poised to benefit from a surge in e-commerce following the covid 19 pandemic this is really transformational in terms of for african designers who can now have a place to showcase their work and also have a place for people to buy it [Music] with lots of factors coming together in 2022 african designers are set to make a lasting impact on the world [Music] uh the eagle has landed 2022 will see the space race heating up again fueled by old fashioned geopolitics and new rivalries between space fanatic billionaires space has always been an arena for competition we talk about the space race ever since the launch of sputnik in 1957 and in 2022 we're going to see various kinds of rivalries between various groups playing out in space by the end of the year china will complete its tiangong space station the international space station from which china was excluded is due for retirement after 2024 and china is keen to demonstrate that it can build its own but china and america are not the only countries competing to show their prowess in space towards the end of the year india will attempt to land a robotic rover on the moon they've tried this before and it didn't work so they're going to have another go and again india thinks that being able to send things to the moon is a sign that you know you're a serious global power the billionaire space race will pick up speed throughout the year with richard branson jeff bezos and elon musk competing to become masters of space tourism 2022 is shaping up to be the first year where more people go to space as paying passengers than as government astronauts and this is made possible by the rivalry between three space tourism companies in particular virgin galactic blue origin and spacex and all of them sent people into space in 2021 and all of them want to send more tourists into space in 2022 [Music] even hollywood is getting in on the action with plans to shoot a movie in orbit featuring tom cruise but it doesn't seem to have got off the launch pad yet meanwhile the russians already have theirs in the can actor yulia peresild and film director klim shipenko returned to earth safely after shooting scenes in orbit for a film that will be released in 2022 so this is another example of a rivalry between america and russia and in this case as with sputnik the russians have got there first half a century after the moon landings the space race is back and 2022 will see the top contenders jostle for pole position i'm tom standage deputy editor of the economist and editor of the world ahead you can read more of our future gazing coverage by clicking the link thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe you

Channel: The Economist

Views: 2,033,800

Keywords: The Economist, Economist, Economist Films, Economist Videos, Politics, News, short-documentary, world ahead, world ahead 2022, china v america, african fashion, what is the metaverse, the space race, hybrid working

Id: YlQ_4604Xfg

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 27 2021