Digital Technologies for Sustainable Futures: Promises and Pitfalls

This book critically examines the interplay between digitalization and sustainability. Amid escalating environmental crises, some of which are now irreversible, there is a noticeable commitment within both international and domestic policy agendas to employ digital technologies in pursuit of sustainability goals.

This collection gathers a multitude of voices interrogating the premise that increased digitalization automatically contributes to greater sustainability. By exploring the planetary links underpinning the global digital economy, the book exposes the extractive logics ingrained within digital capitalism and introduces alternatives like digital degrowth and the circular economy as viable, sustainable paths for the digital era. Through a combination of theoretical reflections and detailed contextual analyses from Italy, New Zealand, and the UK--including initiatives in participatory planning and technology co-design--it articulates the dual role of digital technology: its potential to support socio-economic and environmental sustainability, while also generating conflicts and impasses that undermine these very objectives. Offering fresh insights into power disparities, exclusionary tactics, and systemic injustices that digital solutionism fails to address, this volume also serves as a reminder that sustainability extends beyond climate-related issues, underscoring the inseparability of environmental discourse from wider social justice considerations.

Aimed at a diverse readership, this volume will prove valuable for students, researchers, and practitioners across various fields, including Geography, Urban Studies, Sustainability Studies, Environmental Media Studies, Critical AI Studies, Innovation Studies, and the Digital Humanities.

Chiara Certomà is an Assistant Professor in Political-Economic Geography at the University of Turin, Italy. She also serves as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology, and Society (STS) in Graz, at Ghent University, and at the Earth System Governance Research Network at Utrecht University. Her interests include innovative modes of urban governance and planning in response to environmental challenges and the digital turn.

Fabio Iapaolo is a Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University’s Centre for AI, Culture, and Society, UK. He holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Development from the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, and spent a year with the Critical AI Studies (KIM) group at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. His work bridges spatial, political, and computer science perspectives to address topics such as algorithmic inequalities, the materiality of computation, and the politics of automation.

Federico Martellozzo is an Associate Professor of Economic Geography and GIS at the University of Florence, Italy. After earning his PhD in Political and Economic Geography from the University of Trieste in 2010, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University’s Land Use and Global Environment (LUGE) lab in Canada. His research examines the adverse effects of land development and resource consumption patterns amid global environmental changes.