Seminar: "Co-design for more inclusive and sustainable digital futures", by Dorothea Kleine

Dorothea Kleine, from the Institute for Global Sustainable Development, University of Sheffield, will visit ICTA-UAB to give a seminar exploring digitalisation and AI.

Title: "Co-design for more inclusive and sustainable digital futures" 

Speaker: Dorothea Kleine, Institute for Global Sustainable Development, University of Sheffield

• Date: Tuesday, November 18th 2025
• Time: 4pm.
• Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB

While digital transformation is discussed in development-related policy circles, governments globally grapple with multiple key transition processes, including digitalisation and transitions to greater sustainability, including the mitigation of climate change and biodiversity loss. This talk will reflect firstly on the sustainability costs of the current model of digitalisation, including the energy and water requirements of increased AI use. It will then go on to present principles for refocusing the purpose of digital technologies towards a deep sustainability transition. These include regenerative design and systems innovation towards more digital sovereignty, equity and sufficient, not maximized digitalisation. Regenerative design and equity also demand a different model of co-design, and the talk will reflect on recent work developing more inclusive and culturally adaptable co-design methodologies. Co-designing more sustainable digital futures will require clearer reckoning, alternative guiding principles,  and more inclusivity and diversity in co-design.  

Prof Dorothea Kleine is Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development at the University of Sheffield, where she leads the Digital Technologies, Data and Innovation (DDI) research group. She has published widely on the potential and the ethical challenges of digitalisation in sustainable development in both the global South and North, including in ‘Technologies of Choice?’ (MIT Press).  In her work she combines conceptual and international policy-level engagement with ongoing empirical research, including participatory action research and co-design. She has undertaken research in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Prof Kleine has led several international projects and has conducted collaborative research with and/or advised UNCTAD, ILO, UNICEF, UNEP, EU, DFID/FCDO, GIZ, IDRC, private sector organisations and NGOs. She was the Founding Chair of the Digital Geographies Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). She is co-author of Digital Reset: Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation: https://digitalization-for-sustainability.com/digital-reset/.