Wellbeing of digitalized societies and workplaces
A project by the network of CALL “Church Action on Labour and Life”
About the project
The project was launched by the CALL network and supported by funding from the European Commission to discuss the harmony between the digital wellbeing of societies and sustainability and to provide ethical and practical guidelines.
For the success of the project, it was essential to consider ecological, economic and social values equally in the design of digitization and to acknowledge digitization itself as an approach that serves the wellbeing of society.
Elaborated key factors
- Essential for a sustainable way of digitalisation is the design, including design of software also as design of hardware, in its production and also in use.
- Digital solutions can contribute to the aim of “good work”. They can be used to avoid adding new burdens to the workers and employees but free them up.
- Digital tools can help to strengthen social relations and community building, if they are people-oriented and follow ethical choices in their design.
- In-person relations can be completed by digital means but stay a priority for creative and reliable interaction.
- Digital tools can help to decrease the waste of natural resources, instead of increasing energy consumption or harpening social conflicts.
Project supporters
“Church Action on Labour and Life” (CALL) is a network of church actors in the field of workplaces and economy across Europe. With our position we contribute to the current debate in the European Union about how digitalisation can be used for the wellbeing of all. We aim for a more comprehensive approach adding an ethical layer to these discussions. As part of the project, many organisations joined the discussion and joined the action, both in the world of business and workplaces: Because all of us are stakeholder of life.
Ethical guidelines
With our ethical guidelines, we call for following the scientific evidence to protect resources in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement (1.5° path). Furthermore, our ethical guidelines refer to the EU Digitisation Compass and complement it with dignity, justice, solidarity, and equality regarding the harmony of sustainable digitisation in the sense of Christian ethics. For this, digitisation must be considered in its entirety and shaped sustainably along all steps.
Practical guidelines
The practical guidelines include recommendations for action on the inclusivness of design, data protection and individual sovereignity as well as ecological aspects. They address issues such as stakeholder engagement, the availability of digitization to everyone as well as the provision of analog alternatives, the consideration and empowerment of everyone’s rights, and approaches to reconciling digitization with environmental goals, for example through green coding as well as hardware repairability and recycling.
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Nice homepage! As a participant in the discussion, I’m glad to see that the content and results could be brought together so appropriately.
Danke, Stephan!
Gute Reise und Erholung in Barcelona wünscht Dir Albrecht
Félicitations pour le lancement.
A bientôt.
Grace