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  • Smartopia—Geht Digitalisierung auch nachhaltig? Politische ökologie
  • Susanne Grohs-Reichenbach
Smartopia—Geht Digitalisierung auch nachhaltig?
Politische ökologie

(vol. 155), 4 (2018).
Munich: Oekom Verlag, 2018. 137 pp. Paper, €17.95, isbn 978-3-96238-096-0.

“Turn off all devices and look at the sky.” The 130 pages of this special edition of Politische ökologie: Die Reihe für Querdenker und Vordenkerinnen (Political Ecology: A Series for Lateral and Forward Thinkers) may require resilient readers. It is quite challenging to dive into the complexity of the issues at hand and digest the implications of the digitized society that we are faced with today. Maybe some nourishing snack should be in your reach while delving into the kaleidoscope of more than thirty contributions, which explore what might need to happen in order to make it more likely that digitalization eventually leads to a better, more sustainable life.

The initial comments of Professor Tilman Santarius, social scientist, Technischen Universität Berlin, may be helpful to clarify how to shape digitalization in a prosperous way as well as advocate new concepts. Chances and risks: both sides of the coin are presented with lots of factual information and concrete suggestions, complemented by further literature, videos, and links.

Thus while going through the table of contents, one feels somehow overpowered by the range of crucial topics combined in chapters such as [End Page 543] “Cloud Computing” and “Deep Learning” or in the section “Spectrum of Sustainability.” As in real life, digitalization challenges the reader as a comprehensive political, economic, social, and environmental phenomenon that penetrates nearly all spheres at breathtaking velocity.

But sustainable digitalization cannot be a disruptive digitalization, and therefore the speed by which it is developed must be diminished. This correlation is clear for Santarius. Together with Steffen Lange, Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung, he explores how digitalization can become a booster for the transformation of economy and society into sustainability. They point out a lot of issues determining our future: first, we must consume differently. Consumers of sustainable products could offer their own products on the same platform. But digitalization can only be beneficial and successful if we consume fewer and more sustainable products, avoiding the platforms of the IT giants. So politics, prosumers (consumers who act as producers), and progressive entrepreneurs should design and strengthen cooperative platforms.

Another driver for a significant change of direction is mobility. Here again digitalization can foster multimodular mobility by integrating different platforms for mobility, such as public transport, rent-a-bike, and car-sharing. Mobility “on the go” can be pushed by local communities. But the authors state that politics, rather, follow the call of car manufacturers. As a consequence, their first interim conclusion sounds discouraging: instead of developing concepts that could lead to social innovations driven by technical innovations, digital applications are thought to enhance the existing ecologically disastrous transportation system. Indeed, the authors stress the importance of aftergrowth as a key factor for reducing carbon footprints. Here again, digitalization incorporates great potential, for example, in the field of efficient logistics or with respect to technical solutions that would decentralize parts of commerce and the usage-bound production of energy. One thing is evident to Santarius and Lange: the synergy between politics, society, and economy could make digitalization more useful for fair social conditions and environmental protection. Although research on digitalization and sustainability is in its infancy, we must shape the processes today. And this probably needs some pressure from society.

The following chapters reveal more blind spots concerning digitalization. When I talk to people about sustainability and digitalization, they mostly say: “Oh, I never thought about that.” Sixty-five percent of German citizens do [End Page 544] not associate environment with digitalization, reveals a study in October 2018. Smartopia can teach us about this phenomenon.

The chapter “Anything, Anywhere, Anytime” by Vivian Frick and Johanna Pohl, Technischen Universität Berlin, simply recommends a traditional, a little “unhip” approach: moderation. Options for shopping 24/7 evoked by digital advertising campaigns create growing desire and, in turn, increasing consumption, which leads to an inevitable rebound effect. So the authors plead for moderation for the environment’s sake: Who knows that if the Internet...

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