Maja Van Der Velden

• Junge, Ines & van der Velden, Maja (2018). Obsolescence in Information and Communication Technology: A Critical Discourse Analysis, In David G. Kreps; Charles Melvin Ess; Louise Leenen & Kai K. Kimppa (ed.),  This Changes Everything - ICT and Climate Change: What Can We Do?.  springer.  ISBN 978-3-319-99605-9.  14.  s 188 - 201 Show summary

  Responsible production and consumption is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Fast Tech, resulting in premature obsolescence, is perceived as an important factor in unsustainable production and consumption patterns of information and communication technologies. In order to investigate societal perspectives on planned obsolescence and its root causes in Norway, we implemented a critical discourse analysis of the Norwegian written media. Technology discourses are often inspired by particular understandings of technology-society relations. We therefore mapped our findings on Andrew Feenberg’s four theories of technology. All articles presented a critical perspective towards the phenomenon of obsolescence. The majority of articles expressed an instrumentalist understanding of technology as the cause of planned obsolescence, while the rest communicated technological determinism as the main worldview underlying planned obsolescence. Both instrumentalist and determinist understandings of technology are based on the understanding that technology is intrinsically neutral and can be used for good or bad ends. We argue that this technology is neutral perspective can undermine the development of policy and design interventions that can contribute to sustainable technology. A thorough engagement with the politics of technology is needed to reach the goal of responsible production and consumption.

• van der Velden, Maja (2018). Digitalisation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: What role for design. ID&A Interaction design & architecture(s).  ISSN 1826-9745.  (37), s 160- 174 Show summary

  This paper investigates the relation between digitalisation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Digitalisation is often presented as a transformative power, changing the way we live and work. The SDGs describe digitalisation technologies such as ICTs as enablers of sustainable development. The unsustainability of these technologies themselves may actually undermine the gains made in digitalisation. This becomes clear when we locate the discussion of digitalisation and the SDGs in a discussion of the Planetary Boundaries framework. The example of one of the most emblematic digital technologies of our time, the smartphone, shows the negative impact of its production and consumption on the biosphere, the basis for all life on our planet, and on many of the social aspects of the SDGs, such as poverty, child labour, decent work, and peace. But rather than promoting sustainable digitalisation, this paper proposes the notion of sustainment as a foundational principle for the sustainability of digitalisation. While sustainability has become a mean to an end, sustainment is about sustaining life itself. With sustainment,digitalisation and its design can strengthen our ability to respond to the challenges of living on a finite planet.

• van der Velden, Maja (2018). ICT and Sustainability: Looking Beyond the Anthropocene, In David G. Kreps; Charles Melvin Ess; Louise Leenen & Kai K. Kimppa (ed.),  This Changes Everything - ICT and Climate Change: What Can We Do?.  springer.  ISBN 978-3-319-99605-9.  12.  s 166 - 180 Show summary

  This paper investigates the relation between information and com- munication technology and sustainability through two frameworks that promote sustainable development: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Doughnut Economics. The instrumentalist technology perspective underlying the SDGs, guiding the perceived universality of ICT, presents ICT as a neutral tool. Doughnut Economics enables a more integrative approach, making the unsustainability of ICT itself visible. What these frameworks have in common is that they are located in the discourse of the Anthropocene. Feminist perspectives on this epoch by Donna Haraway and Anna Tsing focus the attention on dif- ferent figures, rhythms, and futures made invisible by the centrality of the human species in the debates on the future of our planet. The idea that humans- with-technology will get us out the predicament of the Anthropocene needs urgent refinement and critical investigation.

• van der Velden, Maja; Joshi, Suhas Govind & Culén, Alma Leora (2018). Designed for Learning: Experiences with the intensive course format in informatics. NOKOBIT - Norsk konferanse for organisasjoners bruk av informasjonsteknologi.  ISSN 1892-0748.  26(1) Show summary

  Bachelor and Master courses at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo are semester- long courses. Students and teaching staff meet two to four hours every week for lectures and group work. This was also the case in Design, Use, Interaction, a two-year master programme. In 2013 it became possible to teach intensive courses in this Master programme, creating an opportunity to implement three intensive courses successively in one semester. This resulted in the development of two intensive courses and the intensification of another course, which was normally taught as a semester-long course: Tangible Interaction Design, Advancements in Interaction Design, and Design, Technology & Society. Each course was five weeks long. In a presentation of each of the three courses, we will focus on the opportunities and challenges in teaching an intensive course. The main question we will address is: What are the characteristics of a successful intensive course? Based on a literature review, we have identified the following attributes that play a central role in the success of an intensive course: course methodology, teaching methods, exam format, and lecturer-student(s) interactions. We will present our experiences in teaching intensive courses along these four attributes. Our findings and discussion centre around our constructivist learning methodology, implemented through a wide variety of methods enabling creativity, hands-on experiences, theory-practice nexus, and critical reflexivity; new and adapted exam formats; and constructive lecturer-student interactions. While the experiences from the three courses are different, we were able to extract three common attributes for success: i) create a ‘learning home’ for the students, which provides them with a common understanding of the course methodology and enables them to identify their learning experiences; ii) actively work with the theory-practice nexus, using the theoretical literature as a lens to understand practice and practice to construct new knowledge; iii) cultivate constructive lecturer-student and student-student interactions both on an individual, group, and class level.

• Sommervold, Margaret Machniak & van der Velden, Maja (2017). Visions of Illness, Disease, and Sickness in Mobile Health Applications. Societies.  ISSN 2075-4698.  7(4) . doi: 10.3390/soc7040028 Full text in Research Archive.
• Abdelnour-Nocera, José; Strano, Michele; Ess, Charles Melvin; van der Velden, Maja & Hrachovec, Herbert (2016). Culture, technology, communication common world, different futures: 10th IFIP WG 13.8 international conference, CaTaC 2016 London, UK, june 15–17, 2016 revised selected papers. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology.  ISSN 1868-4238.  490, s V
• Sommervold, Margaret Machniak & van der Velden, Maja (2016). Technology for Transition: Needs and Preferences of Young Patients, In Marike Hettinga; Alma Leora Culén; Lisette Van Gemert-Pijnen; Anne G. Ekeland; Trine Strand Bergmo; Paolo Perego; Maurizio Caon; Cristiana Degano; Piero Giacomelli & Kari Dyb (ed.),  eTELEMED 2016, The Eighth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine and Social Medicine.  International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA).  ISBN 978-1-61208-470-1.  46.  s 257 - 262 Show summary

  This paper presents a study of the technology needs of young patients with Irritable Bowel Disease, who are in the process of transitioning from pediatrics to adult-centered healthcare. The study is part of a Participatory Design process and is based on the assumption that information and communications technologies can potentially support young patients in achieving increasing independence from parental support and in engaging with their own healthcare. We argue in favor of designing for context-awareness and appropriation in technologies for young patients in transition.

• van der Velden, Maja (2016). Design as Regulation: Towards a regulatory ecology of the mobile phone, In Maja van der Velden (ed.),  CATaC 2016 Culture, Technology, Communication: Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Culture, Technology, Communication - Common world, different futures?.  CaTaC, Culture, Technology, and Communication.  ISBN 978-82-999770-1-2.  14.  s 151 - 164 Show summary

  Mobile phones have become one of the most unsustainable consumer goods. New initiatives, such as Fairphone and Puzzelphone, are working on a more sustainable mobile phone design. This paper introduces the notion of lifecycle thinking to take sustainability beyond the product towards the larger product-system. Social and environmental sustainability needs to be addressed in the whole lifecycle of the mobile phone. This paper explores the opportunities and limitations of design as regulation. The relational concepts of script and affordance help to provide a non-deterministic account of design as regulation. The particular case of the Fairphone 2, a smartphone based on social and environmental values, will be discussed to investigate design as regulation. The notions of regulatory ecology and regulatory patching are introduced as tools to explore opportunities for constructing a more desirable regulatory regime.

• van der Velden, Maja (2016). Design as regulation: Opportunities and limitations for sustainable mobile phone design. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology.  ISSN 1868-4238.  490, s 32- 54 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-50109-3_3 Show summary

  Mobile phones have become one of the most unsustainable consumer goods. Social and environmental risks are found throughout the whole lifecycle of mobile phones. This chapter introduces the notion of lifecycle thinking to take sustainability beyond the product towards the larger product-system. Design can play a central role creating sustainable product lifecycles, but is constraint by other modes of regulation, such as law, social norms, and market. This paper explores the opportunities and limitations of design as regulation. The relational concepts of script and affordance help to provide a non-deterministic account of design as regulation. The particular case of the Fairphone 2, a smartphone designed with social and environmental values, will be discussed to investigate design as regulation. The notions of regulatory ecology and regulatory patching are introduced as tools to explore opportunities for constructing a more desirable regulatory regime.

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• Abdelnour-Nocera, José; Strano, Michele; Ess, Charles Melvin; van der Velden, Maja & Hrachovec, Herbert (2016). Culture, Technology, Communication. Common World, Different Futures: 10th IFIP WG 13.8 International Conference, CaTaC 2016, London, UK, June 15-17, 2016, Revised Selected Papers. Springer.  ISBN 978-3-319-50109-3.  149 s.

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• Oteng-Ababio, Martin & van der Velden, Maja (2019). “Welcome to Sodom” – Six myths about electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Standplaats Wereld.
• Oteng-Ababio, Martin & van der Velden, Maja (2019). 'Welcome to Sodom' - Six myths about electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Blogging for Sustainability.
• van der Velden, Maja (2017). Design for living in the doughnut: The case of the mobile phone.
• van der Velden, Maja (2017). Thinking with Care: Exploring interdisciplinarity in a global research project.
• van der Velden, Maja (2017). Why the most sustainable mobile is the one you own. KLIMA - Et magasin om klimaforskning fra CICERO.
• van der Velden, Maja & Borge, Krister (2017). Rett til reparasjon. Dagsavisen.  ISSN 1503-2892.
• van der Velden, Maja & Taylor, Mark (2017). Sustainability Hotspot Analysis of the Mobile Phone Lifecycle.
• Abdelnour-Nocera, José; Strano, Michele; Ess, Charles Melvin; van der Velden, Maja & Hrachovec, Herbert (2016). Preface. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology.  ISSN 1868-4238.  490, s V- V
• van der Velden, Maja (2016, 19. april). America's Drone Wars: http://www.cinemateket.no/148584/unmanned-americas-drone-wars. [Internett].  Oslo - Cinemateket.
• van der Velden, Maja (2016). Å reparere en stavmikser - en oppfordring til reparasjonsvennlig politikk. Dagsavisen.  ISSN 1503-2892.

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