About the project
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have in the last few decades transformed substantially several aspects of our everyday life, enabling a terrific progress for human beings both at the workplace and as individual consumers, agents and citizens. How can we assess the complex and multifaceted impacts of ICTs on individuals’ welfare, and shape ICTs research and innovation activities towards responsible trajectories? This project intends to develop a brand new line of research in the responsible innovation literature. The key idea is that what responsible innovation is must be defined by investigating how new technologies affect individual users’ subjective well-being – or happiness.
Happiness research has by now become a popular and engaging field of investigation, at the intersection between economics and psychology. Interestingly, however, this literature has not taken into consideration yet the role of advanced technologies, and in particular ICTs, and how these may shape SWB through positive effects as well as new risks. The breadth and complexity of ICTs and the pervasiveness of their effects on individuals’ well-being and quality of life call for a broad, holistic and multidisciplinary framework taking insights from innovation studies, economics and psychological approaches. The project group is truly interdisciplinary and comprises researchers from these neighboring disciplines, from the University of Oslo, NUPI and the University of Sussex.
Research will be organized along the following workpackages:
WP1: Research strategy and framework.
WP2: Data collection and methodology.
WP3: Income-mediated effects: International technology diffusion, catching up and the digital divide.
WP4: Effects on quality and type of work.
WP5: Effects on capabilities, functions and identities.
WP6: Effects on social life and communication patterns.
WP7: Digital infrastructures, environment and welfare.
WP8: Towards a responsible innovation policy.
See the project description (PDF)
Events
Sep. 4, 2017: Workshop: ICTs and well-being
Time and place: Sep. 4, 2017 9:30 AM – Sep. 5, 2017 12:00 PM, Georg Sverdrups hus
The Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture invites you to a workshop on ICTs and well-being.
Programme
Monday 4 September, 9:30 – 12:00: "Internet use and well-being"
- "Effects of Internet use on well-being: A survey and a theoretical framework", Fulvio Castellacci & Vegard Tveito (TIK, University of Oslo)
- "Internet use and life satisfaction in different domains of life", Fulvio Castellacci & Henrik Scwabe (TIK, University of Oslo)
- "Internet use and job satisfaction", Fulvio Castellacci & Clara Viñas-Bardolet (TIK, University of Oslo)
Monday 4 September, 13:30 – 16:00: "Social media and well-being"
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"Online networks and trust, Fabio Sabatini (University of Rome)
- "Connecting with youth at risk: Indigenous organizations use of Facebook", Channarong Intahchomphoo (University of Ottawa)
- "A psychological study of digital youth practices, affect and activism", Erik Carlquist, Lin Prøitz & Katrina Roen (Psychology Department, University of Oslo)
Tuesday 5 September, 9:30-12:00: "ICTs, sustainability and well-being"
- "Digital fabrication and subjective well-being", Cian O’Donovan, Adrian Smith & Ed Steinmuller (SPRU, University of Sussex)
- "ICTs, crime, police and well-being: A case study in Kenya", Jens C. Andvig (NUPI)
- "Television, sustainability and happiness in Peru", Monica Guillen-Royo (TIK, University of Oslo)
May 30, 2016: The Effects of ICT's on Well-being
Time and place: May 30, 2016 9:00 AM – May 31, 2016 1:00 PM, NUPI, C. J. Hambros plass 2
On Monday the 30th and Tuesday the 31th of May a project workshop related to the Happy-ICT-project will the place at NUPI. This will be the first workshop under the auspices of the the ICT and happiness-project.
Programme
Monday 30th May
- 9:30-10:00 – Introduction: Project team and participants
- 10:00-11:30 – Project’s overview and theoretical framework
- ICT and well-being: Towards a theoretical framework (Fulvio Castellacci & Vegard Tveito)
- The economic effects of ICTs: a survey (Per Botolf Maurseth)
- 13:00-14:00 – Project’s data and empirical methods
- 14:00-15:30 – Income-related effects of ICTs
- ICTs and well-being in China and India: a new survey data collection (Dibyendu Maiti)
- ICTs and the death of distance (Arne Melchior)
- ICT use and well-being in European regions (Fulvio Castellacci & Artur Santoalha)
Tuesday 31st May
- 9:00-10:15 – ICTs, quality of work and job satisfaction
- Work life satisfaction and innovation activities: a study of the Norwegian MNE Telenor (Fulvio Castelllacci, Leva Martinekaite & Vegard Tveito)
- Work life satisfaction for knowledge-based workers: an occupation-based approach (Clara Viñas-Bardolet)
- 10:30-11:45 - ICTs, external environment and quality of life
- Green innovations, ICTs and well-being (Ed Steinmuller & Adrian Smith)
- Police corruption, crime and perceived well-being in poor countries: Will ICT innovations make any difference? (Jens C. Andvig)
- 11:45-12:00 – Status of project and next steps
News
Feb. 26, 2018: Successful workshop at DSE
Last week, TIK's project on Responsible Innovation and Happiness: A New Approach to the Effects of ICTs successfully completed its two-day workshop on Transformation, Digital Divides and Development (22-23.2.2018), at the Delhi School of Economics (DSE).
The workshop was organized as part of the project's work-package on "Income-mediated effects: International technology diffusion, catching up and the digital divide" (WP3), and was co-ordinated by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).
About 30 researchers attended the event, and 20 new papers were presented and discussed in the various sessions.
See also the full workshop programme (PDF).
