Speaker: Prof. Dorothea Kleine

Abstract: Dorothea Kleine’s work is conceptually framed by the capabilities approach to human development, centering the lives people have reason to value. In this logic, socio-technical innovation is only successful if it facilitates, within ecological and social justice limits, the diverse lives (and futures) people themselves value. Technology follows purpose. She is well-known for her work operationalising the capabilities approach through the Choice Framework. This framework has been used in various countries and domains to facilitate the analysis, design, and implementation of socio-technical innovation.

In this talk Dorothea will introduce the Choice Framework  and reflect on her own work applying it in participatory, and frequently interdisciplinary, research practice.

She will also reflect on reoccurring challenging questions, including:

• How can choices be aggregated and legitimised in democratic processes and then expressed in digital transformation? 
• What are the potentials and risks inherent in automated choice, including algorithmically expressed choice? 
• How can a diversity of people, including more marginalised groups, be included in processes to shape, and in some cases co-design socio-technical innovation?
• Given the technical complexity of digital transformation, e.g. at municipal level, what is an appropriate level of engagement from user-citizens?

Shortbio: 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) group. Prof Kleine has published widely, including Technologies of Choice? (MIT Press) and recently Digital Reset (Oekom Verlag). She is currently a DFG Mercator Fellow at the University of Münster, with the Digitale Mittelstadt der Zukunft (DMDZ) project.

Prof Kleine combines theoretical and policy-level work with ongoing empirical research, including  participatory action research and co-design. She has undertaken research in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Her research has been supported by UKRI, ESRC, EPSRC, GCRF, Newton Fund, EU, DFG, DAAD, Robert Bosch Foundation, Zeiss-Stiftung, IDRC Canada, CSIR South Africa, UN agencies and others. Before joining Sheffield University, Dorothea Kleine was Director of the ICT4D Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has worked at the University of Cambridge and Bonn University, as well as being a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Having studied at the University of Munich (LMU and TUM) and the University of Oxford, she holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.