Deal all,
We have three exciting PhD opportunities at the Technologies in Practice (TiP)
research group at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The successful candidates will be part of a newly funded ERC project,
DecouplingIT (see call details below).
Please share the call widely in your networks and if you should have any
questions, please dont hesitate to reach out to me at
jmag@itu.dk
The DecouplingIT project consists of a dedicated team of researchers working
to ethnographically explore how (economic) growth is decoupled from climate
impacts within various IT organizations around the world. The project
approaches this by exploring the practices of IT enterprises and professionals
who articulate climate change as a problem in need of IT-generated
innovations, and in particular how they practically deploy IT with the climate
in mind. Theoretically, the project will explore how sociocultural change is
generated in the spaces between IT, climate change and capitalism.
Job descriptions
-
PhD 1 is expected to conduct an independent ethnographic project with
the Shanghai-based social enterprise Qingyue, where they are to investigate
how IT professionals in practice interpret, respond to and reflect upon local
mitigation initiatives through climate data analytics. The PhD-student will
participate in the operations of Qingyues data-related initiatives including
the monitoring of emission and pollution permission implementation in local
governments, and environmental, social and corporate governance of financial
institutions. Through this their focus will be on 1) how professional
responsibility for the climate emerges in encounters across local and global
networks working with big and open climate data, and 2) how data analytics is
constructed as meaningful in relation to the dilemma of decoupling.
-
PhD 2 is expected to conduct an independent ethnographic study examining
the conflicts and ambiguities produced within the Icelandic data and
cryptocurrency industries as they grow their operations through the extraction
of cheap fossil free energy. The study aims to investigate the relationship
between the extraction of energy from resource landscapes and the extraction
of cryptocurrency from digital landscapes that such energy fuels. By engaging
with, for example, software developers, infrastructure specialists and IT
entrepreneurs, the project is interested in how the environment becomes an
object of value, reflexivity, action and conflict from the perspective of IT.
The project is expected to contribute to understanding the contemporary
Icelandic balancing act between climate and environment in the nexus of
narratives of entrepreneurial agency, capitalist pursuit of wealth and
aspirations of decoupled growth.
- PhD 3 is expected to conduct an independent ethnographic project working
in the Kenyan tech eco-system nick-named Silicon Savannah, which is an East
African hub for innovation in IT solutions and digital entrepreneurship. In
relation to climate change, Kenya is implicated in a variety of North-South
relationships meant to mitigate climatic impacts. Solutions to the emission
problems of the Global North whether high-tech (e.g. digital forest monitoring
for REDD+) or low-tech (promotion of clean cookstoves for carbon offsetting)
have received much attention. The study is expected to focus on IT-based
responses to local climate effects such as for example the drilling of
digital wells as a solution to water scarcity from frequent droughts, or the
recent use of Internet of Things (IoT) concepts to reduce emissions and
support circular economy approaches in handling different types of waste
collection and management in Nairobi. The study can favorably be anchored in
local incubator institutions, which are hailed as successful by development
donors in driving local technological solutions to climate change.
NB! Candidates may only apply for one of the subprojects.
Best regards
James
James Maguire, PhD
Associate Professor
Technologies in Practice
Dept of Business IT| IT University of Copenhagen | Emil Holms Kanal 10, 4F21|
2300 Copenhagen|
Tel: +45 7218 5097 / Mobile: +45 50497551|
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