Digital Sjølråderett — Design for a Nordic digital shift
‘Digital Sjølråderett’ is a conference that asks what the ‘digital shift’ means in a Nordic setting. We ask what is at stake when global digitalization trends meet the Nordic welfare states? And how can we design for a Nordic digital shift? The conference is hosted at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design on the 29. November 2019. Get tickets here!
What is at stake when global digitalization trends meet the Nordic welfare states? What kind of challenges and possibilities does the digital shift bring about for societal development, policy, and design? How can the digital shift be used to promote societal values of trust, equity, and collective rights? And is there a Nordic model of digital design in the making that could challenge the hegemony of Silicon Valley? The name of the conference, ‘Digital sjølråderett’, comes from ‘Sjølråderett’, the Nordic term for the right to societal self-determination.
REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE HERE!
Digital Sjølråderett is hosted by the research network of Digital Urban Living at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, in collaboration with writer and designer Dan Hill, Director of Strategic Design at Vinnova, the Swedish Innovation Agency.
The conference aims at addressing multidisciplinary issues of designing for a Nordic ‘digital shift’ — spanning societal development, design, governance, technology, urbanism and architecture. Across cases and discussions the conference addresses what ‘digital sjølråderett’ could mean in the future? And how this right could be challenged and developed?
Within societal and urban development, the ‘digital shift’ is currently presented as the vision of ‘smart societies’ and ‘smart cities’. Many such strategies have recently been criticized on issues of privacy, data-ownership, lack of regulation and changing private-public power relations. Seen in a specific Nordic perspective, our additional claim is that many such developments challenge basic values of the Nordic societal model, such as trust, equity, and inclusion, as well as issues of collective rights and responsibilities.
In this conference, issues of digitalization will be discussed not just as technology, but as debates on social values, culture, and democracy. Secondly, technology will be approached from a broader societal perspective — not just as tools for solving current problems — but as resources for making alternative cultures and futures. Finally, we will discuss how to further develop rights of digital self-determination, be that for nations, regions, cities, communities and citizens.
Sessions: Questions for a Nordic digital shift
At the ‘Digital sjølråderett’ conference we will be discussing issues of digital self-governance in the Nordics by addressing three key questions:
Session 1: How does the digital shift change how we move?
In this session, we ask the seemingly straight-forward question of how the digital shift changes how people move about? However, this is a question that also actualizes deeper problematics of ownership, data policy, design methodologies and the framing of everyday urban cultures.
Session 2: How does the digital shift change how we live together?
This second session takes a closer look at how societal participation, cultures and public services are affected by the digital shift. By presenting and discussing a series of case-studies, we will explore how public cultures, services and places are changing as well as ascribed new roles and functions.
Session 3: How does the digital shift change how we collaborate?
The final session looks into how the digital shift might be used to improve and enhance modes and practices of participation and collaboration in society. In order to do so, we will bring up examples from urban planning, local democracy, and public governance and services.
Closing Keynote
The internationally acclaimed writer, artist and technologist James Bridle will be the closing keynote of the conference. Bridle’s book “New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future”, published by Verso in 2018, addresses the relations between technology, knowledge, society and the future. At Digital Sjølråderett, Bridle’s perspectives on democracy, digitalisation and societal development will place the challenges of a Nordic digital shift in a broader context.
Speakers and cases
‘Digital sjølråderett’ presents a mix of cases and discussions framed by research on design and the digital shift. The conference is chaired by Einar Sneve Martinussen (Chair of Interaction design at AHO) and Dan Hill (Director for Strategic Design at Vinnova).
We will hear from Kai Reaver (AHO), Johan Høgåsen-Hallesby (Urban Sharing), Aleksandra Z. Fischer (AHO), Marius Røstad and Eivind Skogen (Ruter Nye kundetjenester), Brita Bladland Nielsen and Eivind Junker (NTNU Smart Sustainable Cities), Jonny Aspen (AHO), Leo Rygnestad (Områdeløft Grønland og Tøyen / Bydel Gamle Oslo), Joakim Formo (Ericsson Strategic Design) and many more.
A detailed program with all speakers will be released on the conference site soon!
Practicalities
Registration: ‘Digital sjølråderett’ is a free conference, but participants have to register.
Time: November 29th 2019 from 930 til 1800 (Closing keynote James Bridle at 17:00).
Venue: The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Maridalsveien 29, Oslo)in the Sverre Fehn Main Lecture Hall (A2)
