PhD Oral Exam - Janna Frenzel, Communication

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

From production to application, digital technologies play a multifaceted and wide-ranging role in the degradation of the environment. Significant examples include the use of computing to optimize oil and gas production, pollution caused by mining for hardware manufacturing, and energy and water use by data centres. This dissertation examines how grassroots and civil society practitioners – among them digital rights advocates, open-source software developers, and artists – confront these urgent challenges and how they imagine, advocate for, and enact change from below.

Based on a multi-sited, qualitative inquiry combining semi-structured interviews and document analysis, I develop three themes connecting practitioners' distinct approaches to pushing back against extractive forms of computing. The first theme looks at initiatives that seek to prevent fossil fuel companies from benefitting from open-source software by mobilizing licensing as a tool for strategic refusal. The second analyzes examples of speculative design prototyping and narratives that sketch new imaginaries of digital connectivity rooted in relationality and care. The third investigates how practitioners engage in knowledge sharing and work across different ontological and epistemological claims, thereby forging new connections for potential coalition-building between previously siloed fields of work.

Analyzing these practices through the lens of pluriverse theory (Escobar, 2018, 2020) and design justice (Costanza-Chock, 2020), this study reveals an emerging, distributed movement reimagining digital connectivity for low-carbon and socially just futures.