Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Energy Research and Social Science. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Energy Research and Social Science, 82, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102295
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Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Digitalisation, sustainable industrialisation and digital rebound
T2 - – Asking the right questions for a strategic research agenda
AU - Kunkel, Stefanie
AU - Tyfield, David
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Energy Research and Social Science. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Energy Research and Social Science, 82, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102295
PY - 2021/12/31
Y1 - 2021/12/31
N2 - Digitalisation is likely to change established economic development processes. This raises questions about the distribution of the potential welfare gains from industrialisation highlighted by, among others, the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 ‘sustainable industrialisation’. In parallel, industrialisation and digitalisation must be made environmentally sustainable if other pressing sustainability goals, such as climate change mitigation (SDG 13), are to be met. Yet, under the current political and economic system, efficiency gains in material resources and energy associated with digitalisation are prone to aggregate to macro-level growth (‘digital rebound’) that may exacerbate ecological harm of industrialisation, rather than alleviating it. In this article, applying the CPERI/CSPK approach (cultural political economy of research and innovation/complex systems of power-knowledge approach), we argue that digital rebound should be a central research parameter in research on digitalisation and sustainability. Thinking strategically about different models of digitalization, which we call the ‘human-machine associational model’ and the ‘machinic micro-efficiency model’, may enable not only change in the trajectory of digitalisation itself. Yet, it could simultaneously but indirectly address the dominant regime of political economy at system-level, which will either propel or contain digital rebound. We conclude the article by opening up lines of enquiry, for both research and practice to approach a ‘system-questioning’ model of digitalisation.
AB - Digitalisation is likely to change established economic development processes. This raises questions about the distribution of the potential welfare gains from industrialisation highlighted by, among others, the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 ‘sustainable industrialisation’. In parallel, industrialisation and digitalisation must be made environmentally sustainable if other pressing sustainability goals, such as climate change mitigation (SDG 13), are to be met. Yet, under the current political and economic system, efficiency gains in material resources and energy associated with digitalisation are prone to aggregate to macro-level growth (‘digital rebound’) that may exacerbate ecological harm of industrialisation, rather than alleviating it. In this article, applying the CPERI/CSPK approach (cultural political economy of research and innovation/complex systems of power-knowledge approach), we argue that digital rebound should be a central research parameter in research on digitalisation and sustainability. Thinking strategically about different models of digitalization, which we call the ‘human-machine associational model’ and the ‘machinic micro-efficiency model’, may enable not only change in the trajectory of digitalisation itself. Yet, it could simultaneously but indirectly address the dominant regime of political economy at system-level, which will either propel or contain digital rebound. We conclude the article by opening up lines of enquiry, for both research and practice to approach a ‘system-questioning’ model of digitalisation.
KW - digitalization
KW - digital rebound
KW - sustainable industrialization
KW - political economy approach
KW - Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
KW - green growth
KW - degrowth
U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102295
DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102295
M3 - Journal article
VL - 82
JO - Energy Research and Social Science
JF - Energy Research and Social Science
SN - 2214-6296
M1 - 102295
ER -