Chris Schäfer
Title
M.A.
Last Name
Schäfer
First name
Chris
Email
chris.schaefer@unisg.ch
2 results
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Item type:Publication, Harmless Embedding: How sustainability is inscribed into digital technologie(2025-07-29); The focus of digital sustainability research has often been limited to optimizing software, neglecting the underlying assumptions and resulting practices embedded in its use. This study broadens the scope of analysis by introducing a qualitative study of a case in which digital technology is leveraged to operationalize sustainability within a firm we call NewsPort. We ask: How does the deployment of technologies that create, use, transmit, or source electronic data transform sustainability-related practices in organizations? To answer the question, we theorize the process of Harmless Embedding, which operates through three parallel mechanisms: (1) extracting, (2) appeasing, and (3) enhancing. Extracting entails resource-bound data identification, reducing and streamlining. Appeasing describes the integration of decarbonization into existing workflows and rationale. Enhancing anchors and spreads practices within organizations and catalyzes them within and across organizations. This study holds implications for digital sustainability literature, as it demonstrates how efforts to deploy digital technologies to promote sustainability can reinforce existing patterns rather than driving transformation.Type:conference paper - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, From Eagerness to Indifference: How Algorithms Co-Create Carbon Accounting Practices(2024-07-04)In this empirical paper, I examine the efforts of a sustainability team-that has been utilizing carbon accounting software since its establishment-to create a digital product carbon footprint (DPCF). I give an answer to the question of how the use of carbon accounting software shapes employees' relationship with sustainability issues by providing two major insights. By tracing how software shapes workflows and influences organizational practices I show that 1) employees who use the software engage with sustainability, while those who provide data for them have a very limited perspective on the topic; and 2) the software-sustainability department assemblage creates a closed off area in which sustainability tasks can be completed without requiring further engagement from employees not involved in the process, leading them to not associate with the responsibility of addressing sustainability issues.Type:conference paper