Responsible Innovation and Happiness: A New Approach to the Effects of ICTs

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have in the last few decades transformed substantially several aspects of our everyday life, enabling a terrific progress for human beings both at the workplace and as individual consumers, agents and citizens. How can we assess the complex and multifaceted impacts of ICTs on individuals' welfare, and shape ICTs research and innovation activities towards responsible trajectories? This project has developed a brand new line of research at the intersection between responsible innovation literature and well-being studies. The key general idea is that what responsible innovation is must be defined by investigating how new digital technologies affect individual users' well-being. Well-being research has by now become a popular and engaging field of investigation, at the intersection between economics and psychology. Interestingly, however, this literature has not taken into consideration yet the role of advanced technologies, and in particular ICTs, and how these may shape individuals' well-being through positive effects as well as new risks. The breadth and complexity of ICTs and the pervasiveness of their effects on individuals' well-being and quality of life call for a broad, holistic and multidisciplinary framework taking insights from innovation studies, economics, development studies and psychological approaches. The project has set up a multidisciplinary research team with participation from these different fields. The team has carried out a substantial amount of new conceptual and empirical research on how the use of digital technologies affect individuals' well-being in in different domains of life (working life; personal and social life; individual capabilities and perceptions).

The project has developed a new approach to study the effects of ICTs on individuals' well-being. This research theme has called for a broad, holistic and multidisciplinary framework and new collaborations, which are expected to be further extended in the coming years, having a visible impact in the academic community in these fields. In terms of scientific output, research in this project has produced a substantial amount of academic results: the publication of one edited book, 21 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, seven book chapters and 13 working papers. Regarding societal impacts, the theme of the project is highly relevant for the societal and policy debate on the socio-economic effects of ICTs. The project team had in total 26 contributions in terms of interviews or written articles for the Norwegian and international media intended for a broader public.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have in the last few decades transformed substantially several aspects of our everyday life, enabling a terrific progress for human beings both at the workplace and as individual consumers, agents and citizens. How can we assess the complex and multifaceted impacts of ICTs on individuals' welfare, and so shape ICTs research and innovation activities towards responsible trajectories? This project intends to develop a brand new line of research in the responsible innovation literature. The key idea is that what responsible innovation is must be defined by investigating how new technologies affect individual users' subjective well-being - or happiness. Happiness research has by now become a popular and engaging field of investigation, at the intersection between economics and psychology. Interestingly, however, this literature has not taken into consideration yet the role of advanced technologies, and in particular ICTs, and how these may shape SWB through positive effects as well as new risks. The breadth and complexity of ICTs and the pervasiveness of their effects on individuals' well-being and quality of life call for a broad, holistic and multidisciplinary framework taking insights from innovation studies, STS, economics and psychological approaches. The project group is truly interdisciplinary and comprises researchers from these neighboring disciplines, from the University of Oslo, NUPI and SPRU at the University of Sussex .