Friday June 30, Alisa Ananjeva will defend her PhD thesis entitled "Reconciling the competing processes in a digital transformation towards sustainability".

In this dissertation, Alisa investegates how system development organizations navigate competing processes in a digital transformation towards sustainability. Climate change is one of greatest challenges of our time. Digital transformation can help mitigate climate change by showing how digital technologies can (re)define our sustainability practices.

However, the literature on digital transformation towards sustainability is dispersed and characterized by multiple competing processes or tensions that arise from different viewpoints. These different points of view offer alternative explanations for the role of digital technology in solving the wicked problem of climate change. The contradictions and competition are inevitable in this process because there are no right or wrong answers - only answers that are better or worse from different points of view. Thus, there is no clear path to guide us in developing sustainable digital solutions.

Thus, the research question of this dissertation is: how do system development organizations navigate competing concerns in a digital transformation towards sustainability?

Read the full abstract

All interested parties are welcome. After the defense Department of Computer Science will host a small reception in cluster 5, registration is not necessary.