[Commlist] CFP: Towards Sustainable Digital Futures

We have extended the deadline submitting proposals to the Towards 
Sustainable Digital Futures symposium. You have time until 28 February 
to submit your 200-250 word abstract.
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*Call for Proposals:  Towards Sustainable Digital Futures, 14-15 May 
2025, University of Sheffield, UK*

Over the past decades, digitalization and sustainability have emerged as 
two of the most significant global trends, yet they have largely 
developed independently. Digitalization is proposed as a solution to 
address global sustainability challenges such as climate change, 
environmental pollution, and biodiversity loss (United Nations 2018; 
Dwivedi et al. 2022). Nevertheless, technologies such as AI are partial 
and deceptive solutions to the planetary crises if their sustainability 
is not addressed.

Alarming figures from scientific research have highlighted the 
detrimental environmental effects of digitalization and datafication. 
The environmental impacts of digitalization are significant and growing, 
with rising electricity consumption, water usage, and emissions from 
devices, networks, and data centers (Gelenbe, 2023; Lange et al., 2023; 
Li et al., 2023). Moreover, the extraction of critical minerals for 
digital devices as well as planned obsolescence and poor recycling cause 
severe ecological harm, particularly in the Global South (Lange et al., 
2023).

Although societies want digital technologies to serve the social good, 
there has been far more focus on environmental harms of digital 
technologies than sustainable alternatives. In this symposium, we ask 
what a sustainable digital society looks like and how we get there. What 
kind of research is needed to make the digital future more sustainable?

The interdisciplinary symposium will include paper presentations, a 
workshop, and keynote talk. We welcome different types of presentations: 
theoretical, empirical, and methodological research papers, 
“work-in-progress”, practice-based responses, and “wildcards” (suggest 
your own presentation type).

Proposals may respond to, but are not limited by, the following themes:

   *   Conceptual frameworks and vocabularies for studying good digital 
sustainability
   *   Rethinking digital efficiency from a planetary perspective
   *   The ethics of resource-intensive technologies (e.g. AI)
   *   Alternative visions of sustainable digital society
   *   Sustainable practices in digital industries and digital everyday 
life
   *   Policy innovations and interventions for addressing digital 
unsustainability
   *   Innovative and/or speculative methods for digital sustainability 
research
   *   Art-science collaboration, design prototypes, or games on 
digital sustainability

Please submit your proposal (200-250 words) with a brief bio via email 
to (minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi) 
<mailto:(minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi)><mailto:(minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi) 
<mailto:(minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi)>> by 28 February 2025.

*Details:*
When: 14-15 May 2025
Where: The Edge, 34 Endcliffe Crescent, Sheffield. S10 3ED (University 
of Sheffield <https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ 
<https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/>> campus).
Participation fee: £120, or £90 for PhD students. The fee covers 
symposium attendance, refreshments, lunches, and an evening meal on the 
first day. Travel and accommodation are not covered.
For questions and more information, please contact (minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi) 
<mailto:(minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi)><mailto:(minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi) 
<mailto:(minna.vigren /at/ lut.fi)>>.
The symposium is a collaboration between the ESRC Digital Good 
Network<https://digitalgood.net/ <https://digitalgood.net/>> and the 
Imagining Sustainable Digital 
Futures<https://www.minnavigren.net/imagining-sustainable-digital-futures 
<https://www.minnavigren.net/imagining-sustainable-digital-futures>> 
project (Research Council of Finland, 2022-2025).
Organizing committee: Minna Vigren, Dorothea Kleine, Preeti Raghunath, 
and Thomas Wright

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