Approaching technologically induced problems with technologies?
Designing Sustainable Economies
10 SepT
2024
What is the symposium about?
Technology is crucial in shaping socioeconomic and environmental outcomes, both at the regional and the global level. Be it large language models, renewable energy, grid infrastructures, virtual reality, self-driving cars, or carbon capture and storage - technology is changing us and the economic systems we live in.
On the one hand, technology is entangled within the problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, and other global challenges. The ever-continuing introduction of new technologies or the updating of existing ones that promise prosperity and well-being have fueled a consumer society that expands its environmental footprint and increasingly depends on technology. This has led to the excessive use of natural resources and overshooting planetary and societal boundaries.
On the other hand, many technologies bear potential for sustainable transformation. Renewable energy will be the backbone of a sustainable future economy and concepts for sustainable mobility, energy, food, or housing systems all entail some forms of new or different technologies.
Challenge accepted?
The challenge is to design resource-efficient and circular technology that goes hand in hand with a socially and environmentally just and sufficient mode of living. This requires redesigning the development, production, and use of technologies in a way that considers the needs of current and future generations and the planetary boundaries. But how to design such alternative and transformative technologies? What economic systems are needed to foster the necessary ecological and economic transformation?
Our symposium will discuss
these and other questions!
The one-day event addresses researchers and students, business practitioners, civil society stakeholders, and policy-makers interested in the intersection between technology and sustainability. We are delighted to invite you to participate in this symposium, which will lay the foundation for exciting, new research projects that identify pathways towards technology that can help create a prosperous and just society within planetary boundaries.
The symposium is organized by the sections of Human-Computer Interaction (Matthias Laschke) and Pluralist Economics (Steffen Lange, Thomas Kopp) at the University of Siegen’s School of Economic Disciplines.
Keynotes
Prof. Dr. Lenneke Kuijer
Lenneke is an assistant professor in the Industrial Design Department of Eindhoven University of Technology (NL). In her research, Dr. Kuijer integrates knowledge from Science and Technology Studies (STS) – a community in the social sciences that studies the broader, longer-term effects of technologies on everyday life – into novel design approaches and concepts aimed at anticipating and leveraging these effects towards lower environmental impacts. She uses a research-through-design approach in which critical theory is translated into and derived from exemplar designs such as the Splash bathing concept, the Living Shirt, and the BRYS conceptual thermostat.
Prof. Dr. Tilman Santarius
Tilman is a professor of socio-ecological transformation at TU Berlin and the Einstein Center Digital Future. He conducts research on technologically induced efficiency, rebound effects, and how technologies need to be designed to truly support sustainability.
Program
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The hosts, assistant professor Dr. Matthias Laschke, Dr. Steffen Lange and assistant professor Dr. Thomas Kopp, welcome the participants and kick off the symposium. Alongside a greeting from the Dean, Prof. Dr. Marc Hassenzahl, we will briefly introduce the School of Economic Disciplines, study programs and the campus.
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In her keynote, Lenneke will talk about her research on social practices in design and the implications of designing technology with regard to sustainability.
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During the breaks, there will be coffee and drinks and the opportunity to network!
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The project sessions present current projects and research in the fields of technology design and sustainability. Here, you have the opportunity to get to know topics and partners. However, the sessions are not just formal presentations. In each session, there is space for all participants to exchange ideas. The sessions are designed to get to know each other and to discuss, argue, and learn together.
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During the breaks there will be coffee and drinks and the opportunity to network!
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Tilmans’s talk focuses on technologically induced efficiency, rebound effects, and how technologies need to be designed to truly support sustainability.
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Snacks and lunch are provided.
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The project sessions present current projects and research in the fields of technology design and sustainability. Here, you have the opportunity to get to know topics and partners. However, the sessions are not just formal presentations. In each session, there is space for all participants to exchange ideas. The sessions are designed to get to know each other and to discuss, argue, and learn together.
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A short break to get some coffee and to network
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The project sessions present current projects and research in the fields of technology design and sustainability. Here, you have the opportunity to get to know topics and partners. However, the sessions are not just formal presentations. In each session, there is space for all participants to exchange ideas. The sessions are designed to get to know each other and to discuss, argue, and learn together.
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The closing session will sum up the day. We will ask you what you experienced during the day and if and how things are going for you.
Register now!
The symposium is free of charge. Nevertheless, we kindly ask for a committed registration and participation.
venue
The symposium will take place in the new lecture hall and seminar center at the Campus Unteres Schloss.
Further information on how to find us can be found here.
