Digitalisation as well as sustainability are so-called mega-trends the 21st century. Digital technologies are increasingly integrated in society and economy. This process both poses environmental and social challenges, such as climate change or social injustice, as well as the potential to accelerate sustainable transition. An effective transition to renewable decentralized energy supplies for instance will only succeed with digital and connected devices. However, digitalisation is not per definition sustainable. It also has many negative impacts on the environment and society. For example, electronic devices require scarce non-renewable natural resources, and data processing uses vast amounts of energy. The reserves of the elements needed for digitalisation are depleting, while the volume of electronic waste is rapidly growing every year. How can digitalisation support sustainable transition without causing more harm than good? Is a green digitalisation possible? In the module, we cover the risks and potentials in of digital innovations in various sectors such as energy systems, mobility, agriculture o education. The module contains following topics: • Part 1: Is digitalisation sustainable? - An introduction to digital technologies and their social and environmental impact • Part 2: Is digitalisation serving sustainability? – Diving into sustainable human, technology and nature relationships and innovations for a sustainable world • Part 3: Assessing the effects of specific digital technologies (e.g., Artificial intelligence, Smart Everything or Platform economy) for sustainable development as well as their effects on specific spheres of life (e.g., data protection, effects on democracy and digital divide).

Learning outcomes

The module provides knowledge and understanding of social science sustainability research at the interface of technology, environment and society. After attending the module, students will be able to adequately describe digitization as a comprehensive transformation process in terms of its advantages and disadvantages and analyse various digitization phenomena from a social science perspective. They can use digital media and communication formats (blogs, podcasts) in a targeted manner. Students are able to conduct case analyses after completing the module.

Assessment

• Written exam (45 min.) - (30%) • Group presentation (max. 10 min/person) - (30%) • 2 exercises from the seminar, incl. a reflection on the topic of the exercises to hand in (3 pages per exercise) - (15% per exercise) • Active participation in class (10%)

Literature (3)

Lange, S., & Santarius, T. (2020). Smart Green World?: Making Digitalisation Work for Sustainability. Routledge.
Hilty, L., and Aebischer, B. (2015). ICT Innovations for Sustainability. Advances in intelligent systems and computing, 310, p. 351-365.
Vetter, A. (2018). The matrix of convivial technology–assessing technologies for degrowth. Journal of Cleaner Production, 197, 1778-1786.

Modules

Sustainability and Digitalisation

Contents

Learning outcomes

Assessment