Sustainable and Digital Transformation (2024)

Welcome to Sustainable and Digital Transformation

Organizer: Maurizio Tell

Lecturers: Andrea Botero Cabrera, Aalto Finland, Chiara Rossitto, Stockholm, Maurizio Tell, Sustainability and Planning , AAU, Markus Lõchtefeld, Dept. Architecture, Design and Media Tech., AAU, Jens Juel.Stissing, Plan, AAU, Lene Sørensen, Electronic Systems, AAU

ECTS: 3

Date/Time: Online: 7, 22, 28 May- Physical 6, 7 June 2024

Deadline: 16 April 2024

Max no. Of participants: 20

Description: This course aims at providing knowledge and concrete examples of sustainable digital transformation, and of the different approaches that can shape and frame it. The course draws on the need for a profound transformation of socio-ecological dynamics to ensure a livable future for all. The required transformation should, at the same time, be sustainable and digital, and it should include the multitude of social, environmental, and technological elements that constitute the fabric of human practices of living in a common world. The course will discuss what this can mean through examples, which will be selected by the teachers based on the research questions of the participants. Such concrete topics can include, but are not limited to, data caring, waste management, sustainable interaction design, commoning practices, cooperative platforms, green algorithms, and so on and so forth. The course will raise questions on the effects, values and stories linked to data and digitalization, as well as discuss how caring for the climate and environment can scope and create new social-technical configurations.

The course is built on the principles of the PBL model that focuses on learning by doing and reflection. The course is set-up in a hybrid format (online and physical presence), with: 1) a preliminary online sessions to agree on a shared problem that can align the different research questions of the participants; 2) short online sessions to discuss the literature selected by the teachers in relation to the problem identified before, and 3) in-person sessions to provide applications of theories and principles to the participants’ own work. Principles of a flipped classroom are used; literature, videos etc. are provided to the students well before a video/classroom meeting to discuss, comment and question the material. Physical attendance will then include individual and group work around students’ own work, as well as other cases, exercises, discussion sessions and workshops.

Prerequisites: The course is interdisciplinary and open to participants of different backgrounds, although a research focus on sustainable futures and/or digital technologies is necessary for thematic alignment with the course topics. As a PBL initiative, the course will be rooted in the individual participants research questions, to show how research on sustainable and digital transformation

can benefit the individual research trajectories and allow for the construction of a network of early career researchers contributing to the needed sustainable and digital transformation.

Important information concerning PhD courses: We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.