Clash of Modernities in a Digital Age

Sammanfattning: The importance of digitalization is increasingly recognised in academia, practice, and social life as a whole. In discussions of digitalization, the terms “transformative” or “transformation” are used to highlight the future ideal future as a result from intensified use of computers and digitalized technology. In the pursuit of this desired future, the notion of modern comes to mind, with Latour’s statement that how modern and non-modern are a demarcation of time: when something is modern, it is of a different time. Thus, in order to study digitalization with an emphasis on the larger, transformative scale and considering different interests, this thesis provides an exposé the phenomenon of digitalization’s wider ramifications using theories of modernity. Whilst modernity theories have been extensively used in sociology, they have rarely been applied in information systems or e-Government research. To operationalise modernity theories, first and second (reflexive) modernity are used. The thesis is based on three research papers on the Swedish public-sector context, focusing on digitalization and regional development (Paper I), municipal policies (Paper II), and local municipal employees’ translations of their digitalization policy (Paper III). In order to aid me in looking into digitalization I drew on previous research from fields such as philosophy of technology and science and technology studies, which have long studied technology in relation to society. The analysis revealed two distinct ideas. The first is that of digitalization as an efficient juggernaut, a large runaway engine going full throttle towards its desired destination: a digitalized society that utilises all of the benefits digitalization provides. Second, Latour’s notion, described in We Have Never Been Modern, of the public sector as stuck reproducing 19th century values of industrialisation, when closer inspection reveals that these 19th century values of efficiency, control, and rationality are not equipped to handle second modernity issues such as democracy and participation. The contribution of this thesis is twofold: i) a theoretical contribution, using modernity as a theoretical lens in order to understand digitalization and society; and ii) a methodological contribution, operationalising the discursive landscape of digitalization, using different levels of analysis to aggregate the findings to a higher abstraction level. Suggestions for future research include consideration of the problems regarding democracy and participation, which were the core of Scandinavian information systems research during the latter half of the 20th century. I advocate for revisiting these ideas and taking inspiration from both critical information systems and participatory design in Scandinavia.