Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of information and communication technology (ICT) for promoting environmental sustainability in a changing society. Isolated studies exist, but few take a holistic view. Derived from a Marxian tradition, the authors propose Ecological World Systems Theory (WST) as a holistic framework to assess the environmental impact of ICT. The theory is adapted responding to theoretical critiques of absence of change, namely state-centrism and structuralism. Design/methodology/approach – Theoretical study. Empirical examples derived from already published literature. Findings – Ecological WST focuses on the unequal distribution of environmental degradation, sees technological development as a zero-sum game rather than cornucopia and holds that technology is often seen as a fetish in today ' s society. The findings are that popular discourses on ICT and sustainability are since the 1990s becoming increasingly cornucopian, while conditions in the ICT value chain are less cornucopian. Research limitations/implications – Theoretical contributions to Marxian critiques of ICT, with more environmental focus than earlier Marxian critiques, for example Fuchs’ work. Develop a theoretical framework for ICT and sustainability which could be compared with works of e.g. Hilty, Patrignani and Whitehouse. The work is mostly based on existing empirical studies, which is a limitation. Practical implications – This theoretical framework implies that unequal environmental degradation in different parts of the world should be taken into account when assessing environmental impact, for example by means of LCA. Social implications – The framework brings together questions of environmental effects of ICT and global justice. Originality/value – The authors apply a rarely discussed theoretical framework to ICT and environmental sustainability. By doing this the authors suggest how the discourses and the value chain of ICT is intrinsically tied to the world system.

Sustainable entrepreneurship has recently been identified as a promising force to push a sustainable business paradigm shift. A key challenge for researchers and practitioners is thus to understand and promote such practices. However, critics have argued that sustainable entrepreneurship research is heavily reductionist, in the sense that it assumes an independent and rational entrepreneur, with an exclusive focus on entrepreneurial individuals and opportunities. In this paper, we problematize these assumptions and offer an alternative theory of sustainable entrepreneurship based on ethics of care. We introduce the individual-care nexus, where individuals are assumed to be dependent, emotional, and relationally connected. This theoretical development leads to new ways to more accurately grasp the nature of motivations, emotions, traits, and practices in sustainable entrepreneurship. We illustrate our theory with an empirical case of a sustainable entrepreneur within the Green IT movement in Sweden between 2012 and 2017. We argue that our theoretical take on entrepreneurship can both advance research in sustainable entrepreneurship and provide sustainable entrepreneurs with a better understanding of their practices and a new vocabulary.

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In this work-in-progress research paper we aim to explore further the concept of Virtual Exchange (VE) in engineering Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). VE is understood as an ICT enabled practice where education programmes and/or education-related activities take place between students or groups of students who are separated geographically. VE allows for international and intercultural interactions among students without the need to move abroad, which substantially lowers the barriers for participating in such exchange. As VE enables interaction between students with different cultural backgrounds without the need for physical travel, it is clear that VE has potential to contribute to sustainability. However, there are also other sustainabilityrelated effects that need to be emphasized. First, to promote international collaborations among students with different worldviews (internationalization) is often emphasized within ESD in order to be able to acquire a global mindset and develop the ability to collaboratively contribute to the alleviation of global sustainability issues, such as climate change. Second, VE requires students to adopt digital competences not directly related to the course content such as virtual meeting software (e.g. Zoom, Skype), "cloud collaboration software" (e.g. Google Drive, Microsoft Teams) and more. These competences are useful in order to later in the professional life of such students to exploit the dematerialization potential of sustainable ICT. Furthermore, we discuss our experiences with VE in the course Managing Sustainability in Global Industrial Companies which is a course co-taught between Uppsala University and University of Tokyo.

Abstract:Traditionally, research related to Sustainable Information and Communication Technology (Sustainable ICT) has focused on the technological aspects, but there is an emerging stream of research, which looks at Sustainable ICT from the viewpoint of the social sciences. In this paper, we build on and contribute to this research by emphasizing the role of history in the shaping of Sustainable ICT. Rather than seeing the importance of history as pure technological determinism or path dependency, we draw on the historical turn in organizational studies to highlight the idea that history is malleable. This implies that organizational actors can reshape their past from the present, thus creating new conditions for the future. To highlight the importance of this theoretical conceptualization of history, we present a case study of the Nordic ICT company Tieto, where the heat recovery system of the Älvsjö data center (finished in 1978) was reconceptualized as "green" following the Green Information Technology (Green IT) trend in 2007. This way of theorizing organizational history could be used more widely within research into Sustainable ICT in order to understand why Sustainable ICT has become what it is, which also implies that we can re-interpret this history to shape the future of Sustainable ICT.

In another paper in this special issue, we explored how the sharing economy was understood and promoted by researchers in Japan and Sweden, respectively. In this second paper, which is based on two separate archival studies, we proceed by focusing on how the concept is used and understood in the political sphere by politicians and policymakers in the two contexts. On a general level, the sharing economy is understood as an economic model based on the acquisition, provision, and sharing of goods and services, facilitated by digital platforms. This study concludes that within the political spheres in Japan and Sweden there are, however, many different more specific understandings of and assumptions related to the concept. For example, the sharing economy is primarily promoted as a tool for economic revitalization and growth in Japan, while in Sweden its environmental benefits are emphasized. In Japan, there seems to be more consensus around what the sharing economy is, what its main effects are, and how it should be promoted. In Sweden, political parties instead advance different understandings of, and assumptions related to, the sharing economy to advance their political agendas. While the concept has been successfully translated in Japan by powerful political institutions and actors, we argue that the concept remains open to many different interpretations in Sweden.

In this paper, we aim to investigate how researchers in Japan and Sweden perceive and approach the term “sharing economy” in research publications. Systematic literature reviews were used to explore academic discussions in both countries. The main finding of this research is that although researchers in both contexts use similar definitions and concepts, the meanings and connotations of the sharing economy differ among the two contexts. In summary, Japanese researchers tend to focus first and foremost on the economic effects of the sharing economy, as it serves the purpose of economic revitalisation. In contrast, Swedish researchers focus on its environmental effects. The differences reflect country-specific socio-cultural, technological, and economic contexts. Finally, we suggest future directions for research and policy development.

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