Ethics and Sustainability in Digital Service Innovation, 7.5 credits
Etik och hållbarhet i digital tjänsteinnovation, 7,5 hp
Course code: IK8016
School of Information Technology
Level: Second cycle
Select course syllabus
Finalized by: Forsknings- och utbildningsnämnden, 2024-09-18 and is valid for students admitted for spring semester 2025.
Main field of study with advanced study
Informatics, Second cycle, has second-cycle course/s as entry requirements. (A1F)Entry requirements
Services in the Digital Society 15 credits, Emergent Themes in Digital Service Innovation Research 7.5 credits. English 6.
Placement in the Academic System
The course is included in the Master's programme: Digital Service Innovation 120 credits. The course is also offered as a freestanding course.
Objectives
The aim of the course is that the student shall be able to show a deepened understanding of issues concerning ethical and sustainable perspectives in relation to digital service design. This means that the student shall develop knowledge of and the capability to apply theories, methods and frameworks that support ethical and sustainable perspectives. Additionaly, the student shall be able to operationalize and implement digital service innovation where ethics and sustainability is embedded in the solution, and also identify and articulate when this is not the case.
Following successful completion of the course the student should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding
- describe, in depth, the significance of ethical and sustainability-related perspectives
- account for gender theoretical perspectives and describe how and why these theories are relevant for digital service innovation
Skills and ability
- apply theories, frameworks and concepts to analyze examples of ethical problems in relation to digital service innovation
- present an analysis of a design artefact from a perspective of sustainability
Judgement and approach
- critically reflect upon published research related to digital service innovation account for different aspects of sustainable development.
- with a theoretical background, distinguish and discuss ethical positions in a design artefact
Content
The course consists of two parts. During the first part of the course, the student works to develop a deeper understanding of ethical and sustainable perspectives in digital service innovation. During the second part of the course, the student applies knowledge by conducting a critically analytical discussion about a design artefact.
Language of Instruction
Teaching Formats
Teaching consists of lectures, seminars and workshops.
Grading scale
Examination formats
Examination consists of a written groupexamination, the homework analysis of a design artefact presented orally and a seminar based on scientific articles.
2003: Seminar, 1.5 credits
Two-grade scale (UG): Fail (U), Pass (G)
2401: Written Examination, 2 credits
Two-grade scale (UG): Fail (U), Pass (G)
2402: Analysis of Design Artefact, 4 credits
Six-grade scale, letters (FA): Insufficient (F), Sufficient (E), Satisfactory (D), Good (C), Very Good (B), Excellent (A)
Exceptions from the specified examination format
If there are special reasons, the examiner may make exceptions from the specified examination format and allow a student to be examined in another way. Special reasons can e.g. be study support for students with disabilities.
Course evaluation
Course evaluation is part of the course. This evaluation offers guidance in the future development and planning of the course. Course evaluation is documented and made available to the students.
Course literature and other materials
Literature list 2025-01-20 – Until further notice
Bardzell, J., and Bardzell, S. (2013). "What Is Critical About Critical Design?," Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems: ACM, pp. 3297-3306.
Bardzell, J., Bardzell, S., Lazar, A. and Su, N.M., (2019), “(Re-) Framing Menopause Experiences for HCI and Design.” In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-13.
Bocken, N., Short, S., Rana, P. & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production. 65, 42-56.
Hansson, L. Å. E. J., Cerratto Pargman, T., & Pargman, D. S. (2021). A Decade of Sustainable HCI: Connecting SHCI to the Sustainable Development Goals. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–19). Association for Computing Machinery.
Hassan, N., Mingers, J., and Stahl, B. 2018. "Philosophy and Information Systems: Where Are We and Where Should We Go?," European Journal of Information Systems (27:3), pp. 263-277.
Jasanoff, S. (2016). The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future. WW Norton.
Moreno, M., De los Rios, C., Rowe, Z., & Charnley, F. (2016). A conceptual framework for circular design. Sustainability: Science Practice and Policy, 8(9), 937.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E. & Li.deke-Freund, F. (2016): “Business models for sustainability: Origins, present research, and future avenues”, Organization & Environment, Vol. 29(1): 3-10.
More literature will be added following the course content. The student also has to search for complementary literature.
