The Research Landscape of ICT for Sustainability: Harnessing Digital Technology for Sustainable Development

Within the growing debate about sustainability issues, a variety of research communities emerged to connect the fields of sustainable development and ICT. Each of them addresses the link between sustainable development and digital technologies from a slightly different angle. However, the overlaps and blurred boundaries in the scope of research exist. Taking “Doughnut economics” as a foundation and inspired by the LES model, we propose a new conceptual framework to structure the ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S) research landscape. The new model encompasses both environmental and social effects in line with socio-ecological systems thinking. We go one step further and propose to incorporate a decision-making dimension to represent the research of the governance, strategies and policies with respect to ICT effects. We proceed by exploring how this framework could be used to position research fields and communities according to their scope of interest and, by doing so, find synergies between research communities and within the ICT4S landscape. Our aim is to contribute in creating tools to foster dialogue and bridge fragmented research fields and communities interested in ICT impacts on sustainable development.