Digitizing Responsibility: Emerging Technologies and Power in Environmental and Informational Governance

This dissertation examines the role of information and communication technology (ICT)in environmental governance. I sought to examine whether ICT influences power dynamics in environmental governance, how it does so, and how to evaluate the role it may play in transformative change to address environmental problems. I evaluated these questions through the lens of a pragmatic perspective, influenced by the fields of Critical Theory Studies and Science and Technology Studies. Data was gathered using a modified snowball sampling approach. Three different tools were assessed: the Veridium blockchain based carbon market, the AI tool Forest Foresight, and the forest data analytics platform Global Forest Watch. Information and communication technology may influence power dynamics in environmental governance by causing resource dependencies, increasing the number of stakeholders in governance, and creating unexpected vulnerabilities. Transformative governance scholars should begin to consider how to evaluate ICT as part of the goal of generating transformative change to address global environmental crises.

Author

• Round, Christopher

• Artificial Intelligence
• blockchain
• climate change
• Environmental governance
• Information and communications technology
• informational governance

Identifier

hdl:1920/13861

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/13861