Information Systems in a Future of Decreased and Redistributed Global Growth

Abstract

Information systems cycles of innovation rely on global economic growth. However, a 2015 study in Nature predicted that climate change will dramatically slow and redistribute growth in the coming decades. This paper explores how decreased and redistributed growth may impact future information systems and digital innovation. While a long-term global slowdown is not certain, different countries will likely experience significant changes in their growth trajectories, and resulting civilizational transformations. We seek to establish quantitative and theoretical foundations for how a future characterized by climate change would impact information systems around the globe.

HCI’s Role in the Capitalocene: Lessons Learned from an HCI Master Course Across the Globe

“…Scholarship in HCI has also begun to address the global, complex, and interconnected nature of these challenges through a small number of publications [34,50,51]. Especially previous LIM-ITS conferences have provided a home for debates on HCI's role in climate change, (un)sustainability, capitalism, decreasing survivability or the challenges of refugees and migrants (see e.g., [18,48,53,73,74,83]). Nevertheless, HCI faces considerable difficulties in understanding and examining its role in the Capitalocene, its contribution to it, and the potential ways of departure it might offer.…”

“…The project thereby contributes and expands in debates on de-and postcolonial computing within HCI. The project thereby contributes and expands in debates on de-and postcolonial computing within HCI [10,42] including the relation with capitalism [83] and the celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation -the last of which has been highlighted many times as central for HCI, as well as highly problematic [43].…”

Regenerative computing

“…From physical limits affecting computing's ability to operate [10,32] and affects on computing [23], there have been almost as many new limits identified as there have been papers in the LIMITS corpus and many of these have are sociological rather than technical. These have included: reduced growth itself [37]; internet freedoms [19]; gender imposed [1]; or policy modelling [11]. Some of these identified limits question the nature of limits to the paradigm of Human Computer Interaction [22] or the human "needs and requirements" at the centre of design decision Human Centred Design [36].…”