SICT 2023

A doctoral school on sustainable ICT

Illustration of sustainable, ethic and human-centered ICT
From JULY 3rd to 7th 2023 in Grenoble, France
"Radical changes for sustainable and equitable ICT in times of compounding crises"

SICT2023 aims to bridge the gap between research in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the overarching and inter-related social, environmental, and economic questions of our time. The 4th edition of this doctoral summer school will break away from the dominant social, economic, and political paradigm that is currently fostering the infinite infinities of ICT... [more]

Far from limited to researchers with an engineering background, the event wishes to promote trans-disciplinary interactions on ICT topics by bringing together individuals with a broad range of expertise.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

[04th of May 2023] The registration for SICT 2023 is now OPEN ! More information on the registration page.

[12th of October 2022] Talks and debates from SICT2022 are now all available on our YouTube channel !

[8th of June 2021] Our opinion paper "Could Unsustainable Electronics Support Sustainability?", written after SICT2020, has just been published in MDPI Sustainability.

Program 2023

Radical Changes and Rethinking ICT

It can seem daunting or even difficult to take on sustainability in the broader context of ICT. All of us arriving from different backgrounds and motivations, we need to establish common terminology and get to know each other. On Monday, we start off our SICT 2023 week with a welcome, before grounding ourselves in shared knowledge on the many justice, equality, and ecological problems connected and not-yet-enough-connected to ICT and its sustainability.

Decolonising ICT: Understanding digital extractivism

For us, ICT is not neutral. We are far away from producing, building, researching, using ICT in just and equitable ways. As far as injustices and harmful structures exist in all of society, they have defined and continue to define ICT just as much. On Tuesday, we are introduced to how decolonisation, moving beyond (digital) extractivism, and strengthening our digital rights are essential to making ICT more sustainable. We try to unfold these concepts to learn about their many impacts and to identify in what ways they lie at the foundation of the problems of sustainability in computer science today.

How radical changes in ICT transform research on computing

Each of us plays many different roles in our everyday lives. Whether we are early-stage researchers, advanced academics, political activists, consumers, teachers, users, workers, friends, partners, organizers, citizens, humans in this world. For Wednesday, we ask how we can shape our professional, private, public roles to respect planetary boundaries and enable change in these contexts, acknowledging the inherent contradictions involved in doing this.

Taking the place of IT designers

On Thursday, we work on new imaginaries for sustainable futures. In the morning, we have a series of lightning talks, first from an artistic perspective (helping us to reimagine ICT) and then from various collectives working on alternative paths forward. Inspired by impressions, discussions, and learnings of the week, we collectively produce artifacts for radical imaginaries in the afternoon.

Transforming imaginaries around ICT

How to round off the week? To enable us to go home full of energy, we have one final talk on alternative futures, after which we hear about experiences/struggles of collectives working towards different futures in the form of a panel. We end the summer school with the ephemeral museum to which we all (participants, organizers, and speakers) contributed during the week.

About

Radical changes for sustainable and equitable ICT in times of compounding crises

   ABSTRACT 2023

Time is running out on limiting the extent of human-made destruction on our planetary foundations, as we are overshooting at least five out of the nine planetary limits. Our way of life in the Global North is one of the primary drivers for this worsening situation and requires fundamental change for a transition to sustainable societies. Despite having powerful and efficient technologies at our disposal, we have thus far failed to bring the anthropogenic pressure on our planet into balance with its boundaries. Among all tools, information and communication technologies (ICT) have grown enormously in production, deployment, and reach over the past decades, spreading to almost all aspects of our daily lives at the individual and industrial level. They have undoubtedly brought benefits to society (e.g., near-instant communication, access to knowledge, medical technology), but continue to cause severe socio-environmental damages and fall short from being equitable throughout their life cycle. Instead of just trying to improve our ICT in the traditional sense, our hypothesis relies on questioning our relationship with ICT and re-evaluating how we can act towards a sustainable and equitable future.

The goal of the Doctoral Summer School on Sustainable ICT (SICT) 2023 is to break away from the dominant   social , economic, and political paradigm that is currently fostering the infinite infinities of ICT (e.g, infinite growth, scalability, resources, data). We aim to explore radical changes that challenge the assumptions or completely rethink the current dominant capitalist economic model, traditionally focusing on growth – perhaps a more holistic and systemic approach is required? Beyond extractivism and profit-oriented business models, we question the coherence and trends of current industrial road-maps in ICT and their effects on planetary boundaries. Alternative paradigms have emerged in this mindset, such as the low-tech movement, the post-colonial and post-growth movements, and the initiatives around design justice. We don’t have to start from scratch, but we can rebuild whilst making the most of what we have.

During the week, we will hear from and connect with scientists, professionals, and change-makers working towards sustainable and equitable ICTs. Through their inputs, we aim to co-develop new imaginaries for radical changes in ICT. SICT 2023 builds on top of three previous editions in which we saw (i) the difficulty to determine whether the impacts of ICT are net-positive or net-negative, (ii) the complex interactions between our growth-based socio-economic systems and digital technologies, and (iii) the important lack of inter- and transdisciplinarity in the current research and innovation processes which biases digital technologies. In this context, the interdisciplinary docto ral summer school SICT aims at gathering researchers with   div erse   background s from ICT and beyond . Inviting those working or interested in sustainability to collaborate, experiment with interdisciplinary research , and rethink the road ahead for ICT as well as the way we develop digital technologies for a tomorrow within planetary boundaries . SICT is a bottom-up project driven by an international team of PhD students, post-docs, and professors aiming to create a space for alternative imaginaries to be presented, discussed, and experienced through workshops, talks, and debates.

We invite PhD students   from diverse academic fields to come together for a  five-day workshop from July 03 to July 07 , 2023 , in the area of Grenoble, Franc e. The event will be held in English. A few places are available to master students. We have a limited number of scholarships available, apply via info@sictdoctoralschool.com.

Other initiatives of interest

ICT4S 2023

ICT for Sustainability
Rennes, France, June 5-9, 2023

The international ICT4S conferences bring together leading researchers in ICT for Sustainability with government and industry representatives, including decision-makers with an interest in using ICT for sustainability, researchers focusing on ICT effects on sustainability and developers of sustainable ICT systems or applications.

More information: https://conf.researchr.org/series/ict4s